VLADIVOSTOK, November 14. /TASS/. Air companies plan to step up the number of flights connecting Russia’s Pacific city of Vladivostok with South Korea and Japan due to the growing tourist inflow to Russia’s Far East, Vladivostok International Airport’s press service told TASS.
“Airlines have carried a total of 468,000 passengers in the first ten months of 2016, which is a 24% increase compared to 2015. Chinese passenger traffic has surged 64% while South Korean passenger traffic jumped 18% as a result of the growing tourist inflow,” the press office noted.
In this regard, the number of flights to South Korea’s Busan, operated by Aurora airlines, will grow from four weekly flights in the winter to five to seven flights in the summer. The total number of weekly flights operated by Aurora, Korean Air and S7 Airlines to Seoul may grow from 21 to 23.
In the summer of 2017, S7 Airlines plan to increase the number of weekly flights to Tokyo from three up to anywhere from four to seven. One weekly flight to the Japanese city of Niigata will be maintained, operated by Yakutia Airlines. Japanese tourist inflow is expected to grow next year thanks to new intergovernmental agreements.
Meanwhile, air companies do not plan to significantly increase the number of flights to China. In the summer of 2017, all flights to Beijing, Harbin, Mudanjiang, Hong Kong, Tianjin, Shanghai, Dalian, Jinan and Yanji will be continued. The number of flights will not change compared to 2016, the only exception being the route connecting Shanghai and Vladivostok, where weekly flights will double to four.
In the first ten months of 2016, 184,000 Chinese tourists visited Russia’s Far Eastern Primorye region in accordance with the Russian-Chinese agreement on visa free group travels, while 115,000 Chinese citizens had visited the region in the same period of 2015. This year South Korean tourist inflow to Primorye has grown by 20%.