S7 Airlines, the member of the global airline alliance Oneworld, and Meridiana airline have expanded the code-share agreement. They will carry out joint flights on the route Moscow - Milan - Moscow. The flights will be performed since March 27 four times a week - on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays by modern Boeing 737.

“Bulgaria and Russia will work together to increase Russian tourist traffic in the summer 2017 by 40%”, - reports the website of the Ministry of Tourism of Bulgaria after the meeting between the Minister Nikolina Angelkova and the Head the Federal Tourism Agency Oleg Safonov. “Last summer, Bulgaria has noted the growth of tourist flow from Russia by 40%. On this basis, it was decided to work towards the same growth for the summer 2017", - said the Minister.

"Rossia" airline company has performed its first flight on the route Moscow (airport "Vnukovo") - Sofia on Friday” – said in the press service of the Moscow airport. Flights are carried out on a charter basis. In the future (since 7 January) it is planned to implement flights one time per week on Saturdays. The flight FV 5753 departs Moscow at 14:30 and arrives Sofia at 17:00. The return flight FV 5754 departs Sofia at 17:45, arrives Moscow at 22:05 (local time). The new line is served by Boeing 737-800.

“Bulgaria predicts an increase of Russian tourist flow to the ski resorts this winter by 24%”,- according to the data of Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR). The Minister of Tourism of Bulgaria Nikolina Angelkova said, that on the basis of applications filed by foreign carriers, Bulgaria is hoping for a significant influx of foreign tourists.

Russia is on the second place in the number of tourists who visited Bulgaria this year. As the Minister of Tourism of Bulgaria Nikolina Angelkova said, at present time the growth has already exceeded 30%, according to the number of visas issued to Russians. In the summer time it has reached 40%.

Bulgaria will reduce the visa issuing procedure for Russian tourists to 48 hours, on Friday the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR), citing the Ministry of Tourism of Bulgaria, reported. "In particular, for the implementation of the rapid processing of visa procedures for citizens of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Tourism of Bulgaria has transferred to the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry 331 thousand leva ($ 193 thousand)," a statement said.

From June 1, Ural Airlines launch regular flights on the route Perm - Burgas (Bulgaria), the press service of the Perm airport informed. Flights will be operated once a week - on Wednesdays. Flights will be operated by A320 aircraft. Earlier there were only charter flights on the route Perm - Burgas.

Bulgaria considers Russia an exclusively important and strategic counterpart in tourism, Bulgaria’s Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova said in an interview with TASS on Friday. "Our countries now continue an extremely honest dialogue, which favors expanding and deepening of relations in the tourism sector," the minister said.

Tour operators predict a decrease in the number of Russian tourists to Bulgaria by 20% for the year, the Tourism Attache of the Bulgarian Embassy in the Russian Federation Katya Zhekova reported on Thursday. "In the summer the situation with tourists from Russia was, of course, more difficult than in the last year.

The reducing of the tourist flow from Russia to Bulgaria this year will be about 30%, according to the news portal Bulgaria Today with a reference to the country's tourism minister Nikolina Angelkova. The lack of tourists from Russia and Ukraine, was noted already in winter, but growing number of tourists from Turkey, Israel, Serbia, and Romania allowed Bulgaria to finish the winter tourist season quite successfully, with a profit of 17.5 million euro.

Ministry of Tourism of Bulgaria will increase the number of employees at consulates in Moscow and St. Petersburg, since they expect an increase in last minute bookings, according to the Bulgarian portal News.bg. New employees will be hired also from local residents. Also, additional staff will be hired in the consular offices in Kiev, Odessa, Kishinev, Minsk, Tehran, Beirut, Astana, Tbilisi, Istanbul and Bursa.

On Monday, March 16, 2015, the Minister of Tourism of Bulgaria, Nikolina Angelkova, has several meetings with EU representatives in Brussels to discuss the question of facilitating procedure for Russians. The representative of Ministry of Tourism of Bulgaria informed during the meeting on Intourmarket fair in Moscow that one of aspects to facilitate the visa process might be cancellation of visa fee for children up to 16 years old. Such decision is already taken by the government of Bulgaria, there is related instruction, and it only has to be discussed in Brussels.