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Falsified tickets issued to some tourists stranded in China — aviation watchdog

According to the Russian Consulate General in China, about 230 Pearl River tourists had no valid return ticket

MOSCOW, December 12. /TASS/. The debt-ridden Pearl River travel operator, whose Russian customers have been unable to return home from China, has issued falsified itinerary receipts to some of them, said Sergei Izvolsky, a spokesman for Russia’s civil aviation watchdog Rosaviatsiya.

The spokesman said that according to the Russian Consulate General in China, about 230 Pearl River tourists had no return ticket.

"We established today that Pearl River was selling tour packages which included air transportation on board a regular Pegas Fly flight, including from the airport of Zhukovsky to Haikou on November 23. The tourists were given an itinerary receipt which said that the return flight would be carried out by Pegas Fly on December 8," Izvolsky said, adding that on December 11, Pegas Fly officials informed Rosaviatsiya they had stopped flights to Haikou starting from November 26.

"The company had no flights to or from Haikou in its December schedule. Therefore, itinerary receipts, issued by the Pearl River, contain false information. In fact, those air transportation documents were falsified," he added.

Law-enforcement agencies informed

According to Rosaviatsiya spokesman, the company "deceived tourists, violated the law on tourism and deliberately sent tourists to Hainan without a return ticket."

"We informed law enforcement bodies about the possible signs of fraud on behalf of the travel agent," Izvolsky added.

Rosaviatsiya also informed Russia’s tourism industry watchdog, Rosturism, about the situation.

The spokesman said that although Russian air carriers have the capacity to return all stranded tourists to Russia, the question of who will cover the expenses remains open.

Return ticket problem

Meanwhile, Sergei Krupnov, a deputy director general of Russia’s IrAero carrier, said about a thousand of tourists in China currently have no return tickets.

Last Friday, IrAero announced it would stop charter flights to the Chinese tropical resort island of Hainan due to debts. A group of Russian tourists from Tatarstan had to spend almost three days waiting for their departure. Tourists from other regions were also affected. After Russian regulators interfered, IrAero said it would bring back all tourists who have return tickets. The first flight landed in Kazan on Tuesday evening.

"In fact, we had to carry out colossal work to examine over 5,000 tickets of tourists taken to Hainan by IrAero. We have found out that only 539 people have tickets to our company’s flights as part of their contract with the travel operator. It turned out that about a thousand of people had no return tickets," Krupnov said.

He said that the Russian authorities should open a hotline to gather information about passengers, who were provided only with "the travel agency’s vouchers - the so-called itinerary receipts, which did not contain the number of their return ticket."

Krupnov added that Pearl River also attempted to book for its flights tourists delivered to China by other air carriers.

"We started checking lists of passengers for tomorrow’s flight to Ufa and found out that there are people among them whom the Pearl River promised a departure tomorrow [on Wednesday]. Those passengers were brought to China from Moscow by another air carrier. IrAero has no relation to them, and the travel agency has in fact attempted to clandestinely transport by our flight a group of Muscovites, brought to China by another airline, and to do so free of charge and without extra fuss created," the official said.

He assured that the company would return all tourists whom it earlier delivered to China, if they have return tickets.

Pearl River controversy

Earlier, the Irkutsk-based air carrier IrAero said it would suspend flights to two airports of China’s Hainan Island - Haikou and Sanya - due to the debts of the Pearl River tour operator that amount to about $2.3 million. Pearl River, which opened its office in Russia last year, said the company had no debts, and the departures were delayed due to breakdown of planes.

According to latest IrAero figures, about 1,500 Russian tourists are now waiting for their departure from Haikou.

It also became known that Pearl River earlier cooperated with the Pegas Fly company, which cancelled charter flights to China in early December citing the travel agency’s non fulfillment of its financial commitments.