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The number of organized tourists using air travel within the Russian Federation will increase to 10 million by the end of 2024, RST reports, Kommersant reports. Positive dynamics are also observed on foreign flights. More than 40% of all tourists will be transported by Aeroflot, which is betting on flights bypassing Moscow. Travel agents usually buy cheaper tickets, which airlines compensate for through individual ticket prices, experts say.
This year, the share of organized tourists using flights within the Russian Federation will increase from at least 20% to 40% of the total number of tourists in the aviation sector, and their number will reach about 10 million, Vice President Dmitry Gorin told Kommersant at the RFT at the Airtravel forum in Sochi. According to forecasts from the National Institute of Civil Aviation, Russian airlines will transport 84 million passengers on domestic routes this year. The RST predicts that the share of all tourists (independent and organized) making air travel will increase from 20% to 30%, or 25 million.
According to the National Institute, international passenger traffic is expected to reach 28.2 million. PCT expects the number of international package tourists to increase to 10 million. Traditionally, foreign airlines account for about 40% of total passenger traffic.
According to Dmitry Gorin, with the overall increase in the share of domestic transportation, travel agencies have increased the share of combined products, including air tickets and hotels. In international travel, the dynamics are affected by problems with issuing visas and the rise in the cost of vacations due to inflation and the weakening of the ruble. Package services are on average 20% cheaper for tourists than individual trips, he says.
Airlines around the world benefit from cooperation with travel agencies. They sell blocks of seats for 5,000 rubles. The cost of a ticket is 7,000 rubles. The remaining seats can be sold for 12 thousand rubles, says Alexander Lanetsky, General Director of Friendly Avia support. According to him, airlines can also guarantee passengers and reduce the costs of distribution and marketing promotion. For individual trips, travel agencies often use GDS (global distribution systems) to purchase regular tickets for regular flights without group benefits. As Mr. Lanetsky notes, with floating pricing, the price of a travel agent's ticket is not necessarily lower than the price of an airline ticket.
According to sources, in 2019, international flights accounted for 43% of passenger traffic, and in 2023 - only 20%, while this year growth is expected at 25%. Moreover, according to Kommersant's sources, it is profitable for travel agencies to sell transfer tickets from airlines that have left the Russian market.
The statistics were greatly influenced by the cooperation between Aeroflot and Biblio-Globus, which did not cooperate with travel agencies until 2022. Aeroflot plans to transport 4.3 million people as part of tourist groups by the end of 2024, he told Kommersant. Of these, 1.3 million tourists will use domestic flights and more than 1 million will bypass Moscow. In 2023, Aeroflot transported 2.9 million organized tourists, of which 1 million were on domestic routes (890 thousand bypassing Moscow).
Aeroflot notes that its introduction into the tourism sector was only possible with the participation of travel agencies, whose package offer would quickly ensure the necessary use of the airline's aircraft. The largest number of organized tourists fly to Sochi from Moscow, St. Petersburg and the regions, as well as from St. Petersburg and Mineralnye Vody. The main tourist demand on international routes is flights to Turkey, Egypt and Thailand. The share of domestic tourism in the traffic of the tour operator Biblio-Globus has grown from 12% to 30%, and the share of international tourism has decreased from 88% to 70%, the company told Kommersant.
Charter airlines have also increased the number of flights from the region, including bypassing Moscow.
Passenger traffic increased by 20% year-on-year in Siberia, by almost 50% in the Volga region and by 22 times in the south of Russia, including the resumption of flights from Mineralnye Vody and Vladikavkaz, AzurAir told Kommersant.
Aleant says that the number of bookings for tour packages across Russia has increased by 38% compared to last year. In the summer, the travel agency purchased blocks of seats for Ural Airlines on flights from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk to Sochi. The advantage of these tickets is their fixed price, which is cheaper than free sales during peak periods, the company explained. Intourist representative Darya Domostroyeva notes that restrictions on work at southern airports are suppressing demand for package tours to the Russian Federation.