At the moment, Russian tourists have been in a situation where most of the usual destinations are closed for more than a year. So, to get to Barcelona, Prague, or Rome, most likely, you will have to spend about a day on the road and make more than one transfer. Of the direct destinations in Europe, only Serbia is accessible, while other countries are tightening the screws harder, refusing to issue visas to Russians. And Finland has even begun building a fence along the border with Russia. If you enjoy gambling in Finland, do not get upset. You can always check the PlayAmo casino review and win the jackpot!
Asian Countries
The number of seats on flights from Russia to the countries of the Persian Gulf increased by 27% over the year, ATOR reports. Let us explain that the segment from March 1, 2022, to February 28, 2023, was compared with the same period from spring 2018 to spring 2019 when there were no covid restrictions.
The strongest increase was recorded on the route from Moscow, Sheremetyevo to Dubai. The city of skyscrapers and artificial islands has become so popular with Russian tourists that the number of seats sold increased by 228% over the year. If we talk about the region as a whole, the positive image of the Middle East, of course, was added by the World Cup in Qatar.
You should also not forget about the competent policy of local airlines, striving to become hubs for traveling around the world. If you look for tickets from Russia to any of the cities in Asia, Africa, and southern Europe, most options will be with transfers in Doha, Riyadh, or Abu Dhabi.
Turkey
Located in two parts of the world, the country showed an increase of 28% for all destinations in the cities of Russia. Turkey has also become the most popular country for Russians to travel abroad in 2022.
The route from Antalya to Vnukovo took the palm over the indicated period, 144% more passengers traveled from Moscow to the Mediterranean coast and back than in the pre-Covid 2019.
Moreover, Turkey is not a destination location for many tourists from Russia, but also a good partner. Definitely, the political games never come to be fair, though Turkey always does what can benefit it. So Turkey helps Russian airlines to get all the necessary parts for their aircraft from the USA and Europe.
China
Experts named the PRC as another beneficiary of the benefit. The point here is not the number of tourists, on the contrary, there have been practically no guests from this country in Russia for several years now. Since the end of 2019, China has been under strict quarantine, and they decided to ease the measures of the authorities only by the Lunar New Year, which was celebrated at the end of January.
Mutual “closing of the sky” between Russia and the West is beneficial for Chinese airlines since in the end the travel time from Europe to China has not changed for them. Their planes can fly freely over the territory of the Russian Federation, performing routes, for example, from Frankfurt to Hong Kong. And European Boeings are forced to fly around the Russian skies that are closed to them, hence the excessive consumption of fuel and extra hours on the road, although the route is already not closed.
Kazakhstan
As a neighboring country, Kazakhstan also has an influence on aviation politics. Many new routes were created from Moscow to Kazakhstan. Besides, many logistics solutions for getting the necessary goods from the West were solved because of Kazakhstan. Its vast territory can be passed quickly only by air.
The Russian Federation took a different path. Aeroflot handed over its Kazakh routes to its subsidiary Rossiya airline. And instead of Siberia and Ural Airlines, Azimuth, and Red Wings airlines began to fly to Kazakhstan. The reason is that these three air carriers currently flying to Kazakhstan have a fleet of Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft. Kazakh airline SCAT has also increased the number of flights to Moscow. At the moment they have 26 aircraft fleet. Majorly it is filled with Boeings and Bombardiers.
Conclusion
The whole Western world was screaming and applauding the sanctions against Russia, but top management in Russian airlines already had a different way to solve their problems. The European Union lost many Russian tourists and their money. Instead, Asian countries found another opportunity to vast their market and new options to conquer the Russian market. Some might say that sanctions would have a deeper influence in several years. Maybe yes, or maybe not. Nobody knows for sure what might happen tomorrow but today we are definitely sure that a loss for one can become a great win for another.
