Summer weather: how the borders are slightly opened for Russians

From August 1, Russia’s international flights with Turkey, Great Britain and Tanzania will resume. At the same time, a long-term steady demand is observed so far only on flights from Russian cities to Turkish resorts, primarily to Antalya – they will be launched only on August 10. About 10% of Russians who had previously bought vouchers around the country rebooked them to Turkey, a representative of a major tour operator told Izvestia. Russians will not be able to fly to Tanzania in August – the first charter flights will be launched in September.

Turkish monopoly

The Federal Air Transport Agency “Izvestia” was told that From August 1, Aeroflot will resume international flights from Sheremetyevo. The national carrier will operate three flights to Istanbul and two to London on Saturday. The airline will operate 35 flights to Istanbul per week, to London – 28. Low-cost airline Pobeda will perform one flight from Vnukovo to Istanbul on August 1, the company will operate seven flights per week. Turkish Airlines plans up to 28 flights a week, Pegasus Airlines up to seven.

From August 10, Siberia, Ural Airlines, Royal Flight, North Wind, Azur Air, Russia and iFly will start operating flights to Turkish resorts.

Domodedovo said that from August 1, a daily flight to Istanbul of Pegasus airlines will open from the airport. From August 2, it will be possible to fly to London twice a week with British Airways.

– Starting from August 10, the airport’s schedule will include up to 20 international flights per day due to regular and charter flights to Bodrum, Dalaman and Antalya. According to preliminary forecasts, in August, flights of international airlines will account for 7% of the airport’s flight schedule, the press service of Domodedovo added.

The first international flights from Rostov-on-Don will start operating on August 3, the Airports of Regions holding (part of Viktor Vekselberg’s Renova) told Izvestia. From Monday, the largest Turkish carrier Turkish Airlines will fly from Istanbul to Rostov-on-Don five times a week… Last year, the airline had flights on this route every day. The main volume of traffic through the airport is expected from August 10, when flights to Turkish resorts will begin, the holding noted.

Turkish Airlines will also start operating international flights from Pulkovo: the airline will operate its first return flight from Istanbul to St. Petersburg on August 2, told “Izvestia” in the press service of the airport. In the future, the carrier will fly from Istanbul to St. Petersburg five times a week. The first flight from the Northern capital to Istanbul will take about 300 passengers. From August 10, the carrier will fly from Pulkovo to Antalya, five flights a week are also planned. Turkish Airlines will fly to St. Petersburg on medium-haul Boeing 737 and Airbus A321 and long-haul Airbus A330.

The Rossiya airline, which is based at Pulkovo, will resume international flights from August 10: the company will operate three daily flights to Antalya (two regular and one charter), which indicates the expectation of a high load on the direction. Rossiya does not plan to fly to Istanbul from St. Petersburg.

NordWind will fly to Antalya late in the evening on August 9, and it will be in Turkish airspace on August 10. The charter airline Azur Air will fly daily from St. Petersburg to Bodrum and Dalaman from August 10. IFy will operate one flight a day from the Northern capital to Antalya.

The airport added that it will also be possible to fly from St. Petersburg directly to London: flights will be resumed by the European low-cost airline Wizz Air UK (a subsidiary of the Hungarian Wizz Air). No date has been set yet. In August, international flights will account for about 15% of all flights via Pulkovo.

Thus, Russian airlines will operate flights to London and Istanbul only from Moscow. The remaining two cities will be served by foreign carriers.

On July 31, Kommersant wrote about the cancellation of part of Aeroflot’s flights to Istanbul. According to the information in the airline’s flight load table published in one of the telegram channels, as of the evening of July 30, the load on Aeroflot’s third daily flight was rather low – from 6% to 79% on different days. Perhaps Aeroflot is trying to increase the occupancy of its aircraft by reducing the number of flights. Passengers from regions who have bought tickets from their cities to Istanbul with a transfer at Sheremetyevo will have to wait longer than usual upon arrival in Moscow to take their next flight.

Aeroflot said on July 31 that as air traffic is restored, the frequency of flights may change. The airline promises to exchange tickets or refund their cost in case of cancellation of flights to London, Istanbul and Antalya. At the same time, it will not be possible to return money for tickets from the regions to Moscow, since these flights are not canceled.

The operational headquarters for the fight against coronavirus, regarding the opening of flights to other foreign countries, said that they were monitoring the situation on a weekly basis and were working to expand the list of countries to which air traffic could be resumed. The criteria remain the same: in the country to which flights will be opened, there should be no more than 40 new cases of coronavirus disease per 100 thousand population in the last two weeks, no more than 1% of the daily increase in two weeks, the prevalence rate should not exceed 1 per week … The headquarters promised to report the decisions after they are made.

Demanded route

Today there is a high demand for flights to Antalya. Thus, the tour operator Biblio-Globus has been launching six flights a day from Moscow and one from St. Petersburg since August 10. Flights will be operated by Rossiya Airlines on Boeing 747-400 (from 447 to 552 seats). On the first day after the restrictions are lifted, the tour operator will send more than 3.5 thousand tourists from the Russian Federation to Antalya, the loading of the first flights is 90%.

The depth of booking tours to Turkey reaches the end of October, the price offers remain at the level of last year, the company says. By the first decade of August “Biblio-Globus” plans to increase sales of vouchers to Turkish resorts compared to the same period last year. The company notes that about 10% of Russian tourists who previously bought tours in Russia from a tour operator rebooked them to Turkey.

Bookings for tours to Tanzania will open in September. Direct flights there since last autumn from Vnukovo have been operated by Rossiya Airlines.

The Biletix service said that during July, ticket sales abroad did not exceed 10% of the total. Last month the UK, Turkey and Zanzibar accounted for only 2.5% of all international destinations. The absence of a boom in the company is explained by the fact that all demand was realized on domestic routes.

The average check for round-trip air tickets to Turkey increased by 6% – to 20.3 thousand rubles, to Great Britain – by 1%, to 26.8 thousand rubles. In July, tickets with a depth of up to 16 days were booked for the opened directions.

OneTwoTrip notes that the demand for tickets to the UK, Turkey and Tanzania has increased since the announcement of the resumption of services with these countries, but does not reach last year’s figures.

– The average cost of round-trip air tickets for customer search queries for August 2020 to Turkish cities is 29.9 thousand rubles, to London – 23 thousand rubles, and to Zanzibar – 78.6 thousand rubles. The actual average cost last year for round-trip tickets departing in August to Turkey was 20.6 thousand rubles, to Great Britain – 23.6 thousand rubles, to Tanzania – 44.3 thousand rubles, the company said.

Friendly Avia Support CEO Alexander Lanetsky believes that British Airways and Turkish Airlines, taking into account the small number of flights per week, can expect to be loaded, since with an extensive route network they have the opportunity to attract a transit passenger. In general, the situation resembles the resumption of air traffic in Europe, where in the first days there was an almost one hundred percent load, which subsided in a few weeks. He explains the lack of demand for flights to Tanzania by the fact that this destination for Russian tourists remains unexplored in comparison with Turkish resorts…