The number of flights that Turkish carriers operate to and from Russia, may be increased in the “velvet” season. There is an event on the market: flights to Russia have been launched by a new Turkish airline, Southwind. Over the summer, the share of Russian airlines on Turkish routes also increased.
The market expects that the number of permitted flights between Russia and Turkey may be increased by approximately 15%, and the quota of Turkish carriers on Russian routes – expanded by 30% by the onset of the “velvet” season. Despite the fact that summer is drawing to a close, the shortage of transportation, which causes, among other things, an increase in prices for tickets abroad, remains.
SOUTHWIND AIRLINE STARTED FLYING TO TURKEY FROM RUSSIA. HOW MUCH TOURS COST?
Last weekend was marked for the tourist market by the long-awaited appearance in Russia of the new Turkish airline Southwind, which operates flights under the 2S code. Now tours with this transportation can be found with the PEGAS Touristik tour operator, but according to ATOR Bulletin, they will soon be available from other market participants.
Flights are completely tour operator, tickets are on free sale no, only tour packages. While the airline flies from 5 cities, it may soon be from 6.
According to the schedule on the website of Koltsovo International Airport in Ekaterinburg, Southwind flights to Antalya will be operated until the end of October on Thursdays and Sundays by Airbus A-321 aircraft. The travel time is 5.5 hours “there” and 4.5 hours “back”.
On the website of the tour operator PEGAS Touristik with a Southwind flight on August 25, you can buy a tour to Turkey to a 5 * hotel for 9 nights from all-inclusive meals for 162.5 thousand. rubles for two.
From Kazan,according to the airport schedule, the new airline plans to operate flights also on Thursdays and Sundays.
Flight 2S 1823 from Antalya landed in Kazan the day before, on Sunday 14.08 at 20:01. It was also carried out on an Airbus A-321 aircraft. However, according to the tour operator's website, on August 28, for example, Airbus 330-200 has already been announced.
A tour to Turkey from Kazan with Southwind departure on August 28 for 8 nights (+1 night on the road) can be bought < strong>for 140 thousand rubles for two under the same conditions.
Also in August, 5 Southwind flights per week to Antalya from Novosibirsk Tolmachevo Airport are scheduled (Tue, Wed, Thu, Thu, Sun). According to the schedule, flights are planned to be operated by Airbus 330-200, travel time is 6.5 hours.
According to the PEGAS Touristik website, the tour from Novosibirsk under the same conditions (transportation Southwind, 9 nights, 5*, “all inclusive”) can be bought for 155.5 thousand rubles for two, the airline will fly both ways.
Five days a week, except Wednesday and Saturday, Southwind plans to fly to Antalya from St. Petersburg. According to the schedule on the Pulkovo website, the flights will also be operated by the wide-body Airbus 330-200. Travel time will be about 4.5 hours.
Under the same conditions as above, a tour to Turkey from St. Petersburg can be bought for 152 thousand rubles new airline).
Earlier, flights were also announced from Ufa, according to the updated schedule on the website, they should be performed from August 28 until the end of October 6 times a week except Sunday. So far, it has not been possible to find tours from Ufa with a departure from Southwind in the first half of September on the websites of tour operators.
The media also previously reported that Southwind is planning a flight program from Krasnoyarsk. But there are no such flights on the airport website yet.
The new Turkish airline is actively working on creating its own website: despite the fact that it is clearly not yet ready for use, the progress is obvious: the “menu” and “photo gallery” tabs have already appeared. Previously, the site either did not open, or empty pages opened.
Recall that in Turkey, airlines are created specifically for transportation from the Russian market. Now there are two. Mavi Gok (does not fly from Russia yet) and Southwind, which was the first to start such flights.
MOSCOW DOES NOT “DEMAND”, MOSCOW ALLOWS TO FLY
Experts suggest that the number of flights to Turkish destinations may be increased, as earlier the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet announced the possibility of expanding quotas for the “velvet” season for Turkish airlines.
But the Hurriyet publication was not quite clearly understood by Russian colleagues . The speech that Moscow “requires” Ankara to increase its carrying capacity, as stated by a number of media outlets, of course, is not and cannot be. Nor is there a “proposal” to increase the number of flights, although the market still needs one.
The Turkish side requests up to 700 frequencies per week on Russian routes. Back in May, Turkish air carriers wanted 689 flights a week for themselves. For these purposes, aircraft were allocated, about 20% of which, as a result, were not used in Russian directions. Now we are talking about the fact that the Russian authorities “can satisfy the application of Turkish air carriers.”
As a result of the joint work of the tourism market and government agencies, the number of transportation capacities on the lines between Russia and Turkey has increased significantly: responding to the needs of the tourism sector, with the active participation of Rostourism, the Russian authorities came to a model when Turkish colleagues agreed on up to 100% of the declared flights on regional routes , in the Moscow direction – up to 50%.
Aviation market experts interviewed by ATOR Vestnik suggest that it was thanks to this “relaxation” for the regions that Southwind eventually managed to enter the market. and publications emphasize that we are talking about new permits for the new carrier, and not about the fact that it replaced some other airline on these lines.
At the same time, the share of flights operated by Russian airlines in the total transportation between Russia and Turkey also increased significantly in the summer – it was their applications that were in priority.
According to the latest statistics from the Federal Tourism Agency, before Southwind entered the market, up to 750 flights per week were operated between Russia and Turkey (by both Turkish and Russian airlines).
The expansion of international flight programs clearly has a beneficial effect on the cost of air tickets, the work of the tourism market, and, surprisingly, even on the domestic passenger traffic of Russian airlines – tourists fly to vacation abroad through large airports, and they can be reached by domestic flights.
< h2>FLIGHTS TO TURKEY ARE NECESSARY IN ANY SEASON
Experts believe that the expansion of the quota for Turkish airlines does not lose relevance despite the relatively close end of the beach season. It is close, however, relatively: tourists will rest in Turkey for at least September and all of October.
In addition, from a popular resort, Turkey has turned into a serious transit hub for Russians. Of course, first of all, we are not talking about Antalya, but about Istanbul Airport, which, against the background of the mutual closure of the sky by the European Union and Russia, has become the most important transit point in Europe and the largest airport in the region in terms of transit. According to Hurriyet, up to 30% of passengers traveling to Istanbul then go to third countries.
But with connections, Russians fly even through Antalya, from where you can fly with one of the European low-cost airlines. In general, according to CNN Turk statistics, up to 85% of Russians who fly in transit to countries where there are no direct flights now do so through Turkey.
Thanks to Turkey's convenient geographic location, experts suggest that Russian tour operators will continue to use this particular country to organize combined tours, including for the winter season.
A tour to the Dominican Republic from ANEX Tour can be an example of this . The same option is possible with Cuba. Finally, Turkey is also beneficial for organizing transfers to North African destinations, for example, to Egypt – and there are already such proposals.
Finally, in the face of an acute shortage of international air travel, any concessions have a positive effect on the cost air tickets. According to foreign experts, a ticket from Moscow to Istanbul still costs the same as from Istanbul to New York, despite the fact that foreign carriers have taken a course to increase the cost of international air tickets after the COVID-19 pandemic and flights outside Russia are also not getting cheaper.
Thus, any expansion of opportunities in the field of international air transportation from Russian cities to Turkey will have a beneficial effect on the Russian tourism market, experts conclude.
Ekaterina Tropova