Restrictions on trips abroad for Russian nationals are not discussed, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Monday. As [Deputy Foreign Minister} Oleg Syromolotov said [addressing the Federation Council], the Foreign Ministry is not addressing this issue, and no discussion is under way as to restrictions connected with Russians’ trips abroad," she said. "As for recommendations concerning trips to this or that country, they are posted on the website of the Foreign Ministry and are connected with political situation in certain states," Zakharova added.

No plans for the introduction of Soviet-style 'exit' visas for the Russians going abroad have ever been discussed in Moscow, a high-rank source at the Russian Foreign Ministry told TASS on Friday. "No doubt, members of parliament should voice their opinions on the problems of all sorts but in this case he (the State Duma deputy — TASS) refuted his own words," the source said.

Operations of Boeing 737 aircraft will be continued, Head of the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency Alexander Neradko said Friday. "The meeting attendees were unanimous in saying that currently there are no grounds for decommissioning Boeing 737 aircraft, which are registered in other states in Bermuda, Ireland, and are registered in the public register of aircraft of the Russian Federation. Therefore, operations of Boeing 737 aircraft in Russia will be continued on the same grounds," he said. Neradko said the letter from the Interstate Aviation Committee regarding Boeing 737 was related to Kazan crash though the inquiry into it has not been finished yet.

Mardan Palace Hotel in Antalya, Turkey, which belonged to the former owner of Cherkizovsky market in Moscow Telman Ismailov, on Monday was sold at auction, according to the Turkish edition Hurriyett. A state Halkbank is the only participant of the auction . It proposed for the hotel 360 050 000 lire ($ 127.3 million). Previously, the hotel was estimated at 719 million lira ($ 254.1 million).

Tour operator Natalie Tours sent news release, saying the resumption of cooperation with a Spanish incoming company NT Incoming. Prorogation was about one and a half months. The new cooperation agreement was signed for three years and shall enter into force on 1 November. Natalie Tours and NT Incoming severed relations in early September. The incoming company informed the hoteliers that the contracts concluded between it and the Russian tour operator Natalie Tours, cease to have effect, and NT Incoming will not take on any obligations pursuant to customers or to suppliers.

Icarus airline affiliated with tour operator Pegas Touristik and Katekavia airline affiliated with Anex Tour, joined the campaign to get several routes of Transaero. As reported at the Federal Air Transport Agency, Icarus airline will start to operate regular flights from Moscow to Blagoveshchensk and Magadan, which previously were served as the sole by Transaero. The daughter company of Pegas Touristik will carry passengers to these cities together with VIM avia.

On Tuesday, October 27, the users of the search fengine "Bronni.ru" discovered that the site is not available, the telephones are disabled, and search modules integrated on agencies' web pages are not working. Later, "Bronni.ru" to restore the site and all the services, but the phone is still switched off. Elena Krivykh, who is the General Director of the company since January 2014 according to the registry, commented that she left the position on September 5, but the owners still didn't find the new general director.

Fares from Moscow to the Sheremetyevo airport on the new toll highway M-11 "Moscow - St. Petersburg" for cars will range from 80 to 250 rubles, depending on travel time and the method of payment. Paid mode will be launched on November 16, 2015. "Closed" system of toll collection will allow users to pay at the exit from the highway in accordance with the actual distance (mileage).

The Russian Association of Air Transport Operators (AEVT) predicts the cumulative loss of air carriers of the Russian Federation at the end of this year at the level of 25-30 billion rubles, the head of AEVT Vladimir Tasun told. According to Vladimir Tasun, the industry is in difficult financial situation, since at the end of last year, losses reached 24 billion rubles.

Tour operator Biblio Globus within a week plans to return to its customers, who bought tours with tickets on Transaero, 300 million rubles due to the inability to provide them with transportation, on Tuesday the Managing Director of Biblio Globus Alexander Tugolukov said. "In the next week, we expect to return 300 million rubles. The destinations provided with transportation fo today, Egypt and the Dominican Republic, account for about 80% of all tours sold by the company.

Russia and Ukraine will completely terminate all air connections with each other as of October 25 following Ukraine’s decision to close its airspace to all Russian aircraft, including direct and transit flights. Astonishment and disbelief was the Kremlin’s first reaction. "Judging from experience of the past 20 months, we cannot exclude a hypothetical possibility of such acts of insanity," Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Putin’s instruction that Russian government officials should fly domestic airlines if they go on business trips is in line with world practice, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists commenting reports that the head of state had signed a decree obliging officials travelling on business trip to use the services of Russian air companies or the air carriers of countries members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

The commercial director of "Northern Capital Gateway" (VVSS controls "Pulkovo") Eugene Ilyin said to reporters on Friday, that in the coming autumn-winter season the frequency of flights to Frankfurt, Stockholm, Berlin, Vienna, Dusseldorf, Munich is reduced. "For 8 months of 2015, the number of charter programs from St. Petersburg was reduced by 40%," Eugene Ilin said. The greatest decline in charter traffic of Pulkovo recorded in Greece, Tunisia, Bulgaria, and Thailand.

Cards of Visa international payment system will work normally in Russia after October 1, press service of Visa told TASS on Monday. "We confirm Visa cards in Russia will work in normal way after October 1, 2015," Visa’s representative said. The company sent a notice to banks last week regarding the need to send all Russian transactions for processing directly to the Russia’s National System of Payment Cards (NSPC) and eliminate cases of wrong transmission of Russian transactions to the VisaNet system, Visa said.

The creation of a single registry for travel agencies will make the market more transparent, said Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting of the presidium of the State Council on the development of tourism on Monday. He stressed that "the need to ensure the reliability and transparency of travel agents activities, to liberate the market from one-day firms and all sorts of scams."

On Saturday, the Russian government approved the schedule of public holidays and days of vacation in 2016, according to the official website of the ministry. In January 2016, the Russians will have ten days off to celebrate the New Year and Christmas from 1 to 10 January. In February Russian tourists will be able to travel during a three-day holiday, which coincides with the celebration of the Day of Defender of the Fatherland from 21 to 23 February. In March the government gives a four-day holiday, which coincides with International Women's Day, from 5 to 8 March. The National Unity Day on November 4 will also be a public holiday.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine decided to prohibit flights of Russian airlines in Ukraine, first of all to Aeroflot and to Transaero, the Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk said on Friday. "We Made a decision to ban flights of Russian airlines, primarily of companies Aeroflot and Transaero in Ukraine", the Cabinet of Ministers wrote on Twitter on Friday. In addition, according to the press service of the Cabinet, the Ukrainian government prohibits flights of Russian airlines as transit through the territory of Ukraine, "if they contain military goods, dual purpose, or the Russian military manpower."

Transition to a new system of issuing Schengen visas for Russian citizens, including the biometric data, passed without major disruptions,according to the poll of representatives of tourism industry, made by Interfax. Since September 14, 2015, the Russians are obliged to take fingerprints and a digital photograph to apply for short-term Schengen visas. This procedure requires a mandatory personal presence of the applicant at the visa application center.

Members of the Russian Union of Travel Industry elected board of the Union, and identified areas of activity in the years 2015-2017, press secretary of the Union Irina Tyurina reported. The following members of the board retained their positions, as President Sergei Shpilko, vice-presidents Yuri Barzykin, Sergei Korneev, and Alexander Osaulenko.

ST. PETERSBURG, September 15. /TASS/. The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second city, has been ranked sixth on the 2015 list of the world’s best museums, published on Tuesday by travel website TripAdvisor. Twenty-five winners were selected from among 591 museums worldwide, TripAdvisor said. The Metropolitan Museum in New York City took first place.

Russia is not ready to introduce obligatory fingerprinting for foreigners applying for Russian visas, State Duma deputy Leonid Kalashnikov said on Monday. "I do not think we will introduce fingerprint scanning soon, as the consular offices are not ready to collect fingerprints of foreigners coming to Russia," Kalashnikov said, commenting on the introduction of the obligatory fingerprinting for Russian citizens applying for Schengen visas.

The documents are now set to be shipped to the regions from Moscow's Domodedovo Airport. About 1,000 residents of Russia's regions who sent their passports to Moscow embassies to obtain foreign visas have been left without their travel documents after a holdup at the cargo terminal of Sheremetyevo Airport, Russian media reported Thursday.

The decision to open an international airport in Kaluga was made to lower the deficit of regional airports and increase investment attractiveness of the Kaluga Region. A new international airport has opened in central Russia. It is located in the administrative center of a large industrial region of the country - in Kaluga which borders the Moscow Region in the south-west.

In the first half of the year, arrivals from Russia to the EU decreased by 37.4% compared with the same period of the last year, according to the press secretary of the Russian Union of Travel Industry Irina Tyurina. She explained that these figures are based on statistics from Russian Statistics Service, which does not take into account indicators of Ireland and Luxembourg.

The Government of the Russian Federation held the meeting of the Intergovernmental commission chaired by Igor Shuvalov, First Deputy Prime Minister, on the issues of air transport industry. In the interests of the development of the commercial aviation and creating one of the largest in the world group of airlines, the commission has approved the acquisition of JSC Transaero Airlines by Aeroflot group. The shareholders of Transaero Airlines believe this measure will serve the interests of passengers, personnel and partners of the airline. The Chairman of the meeting has highly appreciated the role of the founders, managers and all the personnel of Transaero Airlines in the modern history of the commercial aviation of the country.