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The Ukrainian airline company AeroSvit cancels flights, tourists travelling on their own hit worst

A mass return of Russian citizens after the New Year vacation is scheduled for the next few days

MOSCOW, January 9 (Itar-Tass) — The situation in respect to the Ukrainian airline company AeroSvit which cancelled a number of flights has seriously affected only Russian tourists who arranged trips on their own, a source from the Russian Union of Travel Industry (RST) said on Wednesday.

Unlike the Ukrainian market of tourism which heavily involves Aerosvit in charter flight programs, Russian travel operators practically do not use AeroSvit services; therefore, the AeroSvit problems have seriously affected only tourists travelling on their own and some other passengers, the RST source said. In particular, on January 8 around thirty Russian citizens failed to fly home from Israeli Ben Gurion airport because AeroSvit flights were cancelled, it said.

Nevertheless, a number of travel operators had booked their tourists for New Year connecting flights Moscow Budapest via Kiev, Tatyana Vand – Director General of one of such companies, admitted. These tourists faced problems already late on January 7, and on January 8 twelve of them were sent back home by train and on flights performed by other companies, Vand said. "Thirty-five people are still staying at Budapest hotels, but we are planning to let them return home in the next few days at our expense, of course," Tatyana Vand said.

To make the matter worse, a mass return of Russian citizens after the New Year vacation is scheduled for the next few days; all the flights and trains are practically fully booked, the RST source said.

The AeroSvit company had to cancel its flights after on January 3–5 servicing of AeroSvit flights was suspended at airports in Warsaw, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Tel-Aviv.

The talks with the administration of the airports which suspended servicing the AeroSvit flights continues, the AeroSvit press service said in a statement circulated on Tuesday.