Azernews.Az

By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade

As the summer season has started, the flow of tourists between Russia and Azerbaijan is growing. In order to handle with the increasing number of visitors, airlines open new flights to popular destinations.

Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo International Airport said in a message that Russian IrAero airline launched the first regular flight Baku-Yekaterinburg-Baku on June 19.

The airline will operate the flights on Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft with a capacity of 103 passengers once a week, on Tuesdays. Travel time is three hours.

The message says that along with IrAero, Ural Airlines operates flights to the capital of Azerbaijan. Flights are operated twice a week, on Thursdays and Sundays.

It is noteworthy that IrAero will also open direct flights between Baku and Russia’s Rostov-on-Don on July 6. Flights will be operated by Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft on Saturdays.

One-way ticket prices will start from 315 manats ($185). The flights will last for two hours. The plane will take off from Baku at 12:50 and arrive in Rostov-on-Don at 13:50. The return flight will depart at 15:00 and arrive in Baku at 18:20.

As for the activities taken by local carriers, it is important to note that Buta Airways low-cost airline will increase the number of flights to Russia’s Mineralnye Vody.

Additional flights will be operated in accordance with the schedule: three times per week (Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays) on September 10-19, four times per week (Mondays, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays) on September 21-October 1, and five times per week (Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays) on October 3-26.

It should also be noted that Buta Airways launched direct flights from Baku to Astrakhan on May 16. The minimum fare for Baku-Astrakhan flight, like for other destinations of the airline, is 29 euros (one way). Flights are carried out twice a week – on Mondays and Thursdays.

In 2018, Russia was the leader in the tourism market of Azerbaijan. Thus, as many as 2,849,600 tourists from 196 countries arrived in Azerbaijan during the year and Russians made up the largest share of the tourists - 30.9 percent (about 900,000).

As for Russia as a travel point for Azerbaijani tourists, it is noteworthy that Moscow and St. Petersburg keep the status of most popular Russian cities among Azerbaijani tourists. Additionally, Azerbaijani tourists began to choose the Russian city of Zheleznovodsk more often for rest and treatment. As many as 1,500 Azerbaijani tourists visited this Russian city last year.

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Mirsaid Ibrahimzade is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @MirsaidIbrahim1

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