Tour operators shared their plans on flight programs to Cyprus for August and September.

According to market participants, at the stage of early booking the demand for tours to Greece for the summer of 2020 is ahead of last year from 10 to 35%. Tour operators are expanding their flight programs.

According to the results of 2019, the tourist flow from Russia to the Maldives increased by 17,5%, setting a record - the figures of the arrivals of Russians over the past year for the first time exceed the best pre-crisis indicators of 2013.

In 2018 599 thousand guests from Russia had a holiday in Tunisia, in 2019 their number was already 633 000 - an increase is of almost 6%. Against this background, tour operators have already informed about the expansion of flight programs.

The charter chain of Azur Air airline to the Maldives this winter showed good results: both players who formed the tours on these charters reported on successful sales.

Azur Air by order of Anex Tour will launch a new charter flight from Novosibirsk to Barcelona.

Tour operators began to arrange flight programs from Kazan for the new season. Among the most noticeable changes compared 2019 are increasing of flights to the capital of Crete.

Over the past few years the demand for Tunisia has tripled. By the way, at the moment, travelers visit the Republic not only in the summer season, but also in winter time.

The first 9 months of this year were difficult for the Russian tourist flow to the Dominican Republic – Russian tourists came here a little less than last year. This year tour operators increased their volumes due to new regional departure points.

Press service of the international airport Koltsovo in Ekaterinburg informed that 25.10.2019 the first flight to Dominicana took off. La – Romana is the arrival port in Dominicana for this program. Azur air company uses Boeing 777-300ER aircraft with total seats number — up to 531, with business class (7-42 seats). The flight will be fulfilled once a fortnight .

"The services of the international Sochi airport named after Sevastjanov informed that there were 101 623 passengers from Israel and that is 133% flow growth from this country in comparison to 2018. Israir company and Ural airlines work on this destination. Both carriers use A-320 on the route. The number of visitors from UAE during the first 9 months of 2019 has increased in 17 times. Thus 6 753 guests from Dubai arrived Sochi during 9 months of this year. "

Turkey was the leader of the summer season 2019. And Alexander Ermolaev - Mag.travel commercial director has suggested the colleagues of the closed travel public in social media to vote for the best air company during this summer season. Turkish airlines company was excluded from the start. This poll has caused the heated discussion. Travel experts expressed their attitude to the air carriers - participants of Turkey destination by voting.

The minimum prices for holiday tours to India are comparable to the cost of air tickets to the destination. Experts see the reason of the situation in the specifics of India as a tourist destination.

Platov international airport in Rostov-on-Don expands the geography of the international flights. The press service of the airport informs that in the upcoming season Azur Air company plans to fulfiil the flights to Chinese island Hainan. The destination is Sanya resort.

Krasnodar international airport press service reports that Azur Air (which is affiliated with Anex Tour) plans to start flight program to Hainan island to Sanya international airport on Boeing 767-300 since 27.10.19 till 22.03.2020. The air craft can take on board 336 passengers.

The geography of direct flights from Russian cities to the Dominican Republic for the winter season - 2019/2020 continues to expand. The new program of Azur Air from Kazan to La Romana was announced. The flights will be operated once every two weeks from November 1 to April 17.

The tour operator Anex Tour announced the sales of tours with a direct flight to Abu Dhabi (UAE) from Moscow with Azur Air flights. The flight program of Azur Air (Moscow-Abu Dhabi-Moscow) is scheduled from October 28 for the entire winter season with departures twice a week. 

Three Russian tour operators start flight programs to Mexico for the winter season. Pegast Touristik starts its flight program to Cancun on 27.08.2019 with Nord Wind air company. Coral Travel flies to Cancun with Royal Flight (RL 7581/82) on Boeing 777-300 ER from Vnukovo. Anex Tour flies to Cancun with Azur Air all year round on Boeing 777-300 ER twice a week.

On November 8, Azur Air with will open direct flights to the Dominican Republic from Ekaterinburg (Koltsovo Airport). The flights will be operated every two weeks. This information is given by the press service of the air harbour.  Departure from Yekaterinburg is scheduled on Fridays at 09:10, from the Dominican Republic - on Thursdays at 10:10 (local time). Travel time will be 12 hours.

As part of the spring-summer navigation, AZUR air is expanding its flight program to Turkey. It has departures from Moscow, St. Petersburg and another 37 Russian cities along four routs – to Antalya, Alanya (Gazipasa), Dalaman and Bodrum. 

In the summer season of 2019, the tour operator ANEX Tour expands its regional charter program to Turkey. For some of new cities of departure the direct charter flights to Turkey are arraigned for the first time. 

Tour operator TUI Russia and the largest charter carrier of the Russian Federation - airline AZUR air, told about the cooperation in the summer season of 2019. The capacities of AZUR air will be extensively used by TUI on 6 destinations, flights are planned from 11 regions of Russia.

During the verification of the airline Rosaviatsia detected shortcomings concerning the maintenance of airworthiness of airplanes and organization of flight activity. “Azur Air airline can stop flights from March 21, if it does not eliminate all the shortcomings which significantly affect the safety of flights”, - says the statement of Rosaviatsia.

According to statistics published by Federal Air Transport Agency, which indicate the core indicators of operations activities of the airlines in 2017, AZUR air consistently ranks No. 8 in the industry by number of passengers carried and ranks No. 5 by passenger turnover. According to the regulatory authority, from January to December the airline AZUR air carried more than 3.747 million passengers, which is 59.9% greater than in 2016.

ANEX Tour tour operator announced its plans for flight programs to Rhodes and Montenegro. In the upcoming summer season ANEX Tour will resume the flight program to Rhodes Island. Air the flights on the route Moscow - Rhodes - Moscow will be performed by AZUR Air airline. The flight program will start from the end of May and will last until mid of November.