MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/. Direct air service between Russia and the Philippines is planned to resume this October, Russian Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Alexey Gruzdev said at a plenary meeting of the joint Russian-Philippine commission on trade and economic cooperation.

"I would like to welcome the resumption of direct flights between our countries. We discussed plans for the first flights from two Russian cities to the Philippines to begin in the near future, in October of this year. This is particularly important for developing tourism and increasing mutual tourist flow," he said.

Last year more than 27,000 Russian tourists visited the archipelago, which is a 19% increase compared with 2023, Gruzdev noted. "We believe that the prospects for increasing those numbers are significantly greater and, of course, we are counting on reciprocal interest," he said.