The lifting of the ban opens the way to a resumption of the package tours that were a major source of revenue for Turkey.
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Russia is to resume charter flights to Turkey, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says, ending Moscow’s nine-month flight ban as part of sanctions on Ankara.
Airline companies have started to submit applications for charters to Turkey to the Russian aviation authorities, Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov said in a statement.
Erdoğan brought up the issue of the resumption of the charter flights to Turkey during his meeting with Putin in St. Petersburg on August 9. Russia’s move has been highly praised by Turkish tourism representatives, as they believed that they can recover some 15 percent of their losses in the Russian market after the flights begin. As the charter flights have not resumed yet, the arrivals are still in low figures.
The number of Russian tourists dropped off by 93 per cent compared to a year ago.
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Charter flights to Turkey, a popular holiday destination among Russians, were subjected to limitations in November 2015 after Turkey’s military shot down a Russian Su-24 air force jet near the border with Syria, killing two pilots. Russian Federation took harsh steps, including imposing economic sanctions on Turkey and banning tour packages.
