The PAC Group tour operator completed the flight program from the Rostov Platov Airport in Rimini. The reason, according to tour operators, was the low load of the program. In addition, the location of the new airport reoriented part of the tourists, who previously flew from Rostov, to Krasnodar airport. The situation is deteriorated by quite high prices for holidays in Italy, as reported. 

PAC GROUP tour operator offers a flight program to Italy from Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, St. Petersburg by regular flights of S7 Airlines and Ural Airlines

The rate of early booking in Italy is 20% ahead of last year, according to tour operators. In the summer season market participants expand their programs in Italy and add them with new regions.  According to ENIT, in 2018 the flow of tourists from Russia to Italy reached 804 thousand, which is 19% ahead of 2017. Italy has become the third most popular country (after Turkey and Thailand) among Russian tourists. 

From April 29, 2019, S7 Airlines will start flights from Pulkovo to the Italian island of Sardinia. The flights will be operated to the city of Olbia and will become a novelty in the new schedule of St. Petersburg air harbor. 

In the framework of early booking the rate of sales of ski tours in the Alps this year is higher than last year. And the best results belong to Italy. “The depth of sales is also good.

“For the first time Tez Tour operator will offer package tours to the region of Calabria in Italy from September 7 to October 5 2018”, - said PR-director of the company Larisa Akhanova. "We are offering package tours to Calabria for the first time. The flight program starts on September 7 and will last until October 5.

“More than 20 thousand Russians visited Genoa (Italy) in 2017”, - said Eliza Serafini the Marketing and culture adviser of Genoa city. According to her, the Russians now are in the list of TOP 10 of countries which tourists come to this region. In total, 518,500 foreign visitors visited Genoa.

Sales of tours for the Italian island of Sicily for the summer season - 2018 are more active than a year earlier. So, according to the Head of the Italy department of PAC GROUP operator Yulia Berdnikova, in her company the rates of early bookings of Sicily is about 20% ahead of the last year, while the depth of sales is high.

In 2017, according to the tourist administration of Trentino region of Italy, 35,000 Russian citizens came here to rest. Russian tour operators and airlines intend to increase the flow of tourists to the Dolomites in 2018. The growth of the Russian tourist flow in Trentino, known among skiers as the Dolomites, began in the winter 2015/16 and the third season is still at the level of +20-25%.

“Aeroflot airline will open flights from Moscow to Verona and Naples cities since July 1, 2018”, - reports the carrier's press service. The flight SU 2482 will depart from Sheremetyevo at 7:35 and arrive to Verona at 10:00. The return flight SU 2483 will depart Verona at 11:10 and arrive to Sheremetyevo at 15:30. The flight SU 2480 to Naples will depart from Sheremetyevo at 8:10 and arrive to the Italian city at 11:00. The return flight SU 2481 will depart at 12:00 and arrive to Moscow at 16:30. The flights will be carried out by Airbus A320. Currently, the flights from Moscow to Verona are performed by S7 Airlines and Ural Airlines, and to Naples by S7 Airlines.

Siberia Airlines (part of S7 group) starts a new flight St. Petersburg - Pisa on March 26, 2018. According to the report of the group, the flights will be performed by A319 planes on Mondays and Fridays. Departure from St. Petersburg is scheduled at 8:15, arriving time to Pisa airport is 10:50; return flight will be departed at 11:50 and arriving time to Pulkovo is 16:15. Following the results for 9 months of 2017, Siberia Airlines is on the third place by passenger traffic in Russia,

“Alitalia will resume its second daily flight between Rome and Moscow on May 2, 2018”, - reported the Russian representative office of the company. "The flights will depart from Moscow at 16:40 and arrive to Rome at 19:35 of local time. The flights will be performed by Airbus A320", - informed the source.

“S7 Airlines will start regular flights to Sardinia’s Cagliari and Olbia airports from June 2018”, - the company's press service reported. Flights from Moscow to Cagliari will be carried out on Wednesdays and Sundays from June 3, 2018. Departure from Domodedovo at 10:55, arriving at Cagliari at 14:10 of local time.

According to the National Tourism Agency of Italy (ENIT), 644 thousand Russians visited Italy from January to August this year, which is 8.2% more than last year. This was announced by Giovanni Bastianelli, Executive director of the Rome’s office of ENIT at an Italian workshop in Moscow. Moreover, according to him, Russian tourists began to leave more money in Italian shops and restaurants - only in the first half of the year they spent 457 million Euros, which exceeded the figures for the same period of the last year by 15,1%.

“UTair airline has begun flights between Moscow and Milan”, - told the press service of the company. Flights are performed daily by Boeing 737-500 airplanes, which have a capacity of 8 seats in business class and 108 seats in economy. Flight UT 787 takes off from Moscow (Vnukovo airport) at 10:25 and arrives to Milan (Malpensa airport) at 12:00.

S7 Airlines announced the opening of regular flights to Sardinia. The carrier will perform flights from Domodedovo airport to Olbia and Cagliari since June 2 and 3, 2018 respectively. Departures from Moscow will be carried out by Airbus A320. Tour operators are already interested in the flight program. "We booked blocks of seats on all five S7 Airlines flights to Sardinia. Two of them will be performed to Cagliari and three to Olbia.

“The owner of "VIM-Avia" has neither operating assets nor borrowed funds to continue the work by itself”, - stated Rosaviatsiya after the meeting on the operational activities of the carrier. “The airline has decided to completely stop the charter flights of passengers to the places of rest and back”, - adds Rosaviatsiya.

“Ural Airlines has launches regular flights from the Moscow airport Zhukovsky to Rome since September 8”, - said the company's press service. Flights will initially be performed once a week on Fridays, from October 4 the airline will carry out the flights twice a week - on Wednesday and Saturday.

“The Italian airline Alitalia has launched regular flights between St. Petersburg and Venice”, - the Pulkovo airport press service reported. Flights will be carried out once a week until October 7, 2017. In addition, in the current summer season Alitalia has already launched regular flights from St. Petersburg to Catania.

The small increase of the tourist flow in Italy, which began in 2016, continues this year. As the tour operators said, the recovery is noted not only for May holidays, but for the whole summer season. According to the Deputy General Director of Carlson Tourism company Maria Malysheva, May has grown by 10-15%, but they could not reach the pre-crisis volumes.

In summer 2017, a significant part of air transportation to Sicily, which is included in the package tours, will be performed by regular flights. This follows from the flight plans of tour operators for the "high" season period. According to the commercial director of TEZ Tour Alexander Burtin, the decision of many tour operators to focus on regular air transportation is justified.

“Ural Airlines” plans to start flights to Rome from Moscow's airport Zhukovsky since July 7”, - informed the airport's website. Ticket sales are available now on the carrier's website. Now “Ural Airlines” carries out the regular flights from Zhukovsky to Dushanbe and Khujand (Tajikistan) and Tel Aviv (Israel). Also it was reported, that the carrier plans to launch flights from Moscow to Beijing since June 5. Today, in addition to the "Ural Airlines" Zhukovsky airport serves Kyrgyz airline “Air Manas” (flight to Bishkek) and Belarusian "Belavia" (flight to Minsk).