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Ekaterinburg tour operating companies faced the problem of shortage of flight traffic to the UAE and Thailand. According to local travel companies, demand for these destinations exceeded the flight volume planned for winter season at 15–25%. ‘At the moment there are two flights to Dubai and two flights to Bangkok per week and that was enough before now', said Elena Maslova, Director Deputy of Ekaterinburg tour operator UralSibTour. Indeed, experts estimated last January as the least popular month regarding flight load. This winter the situation has changed dramatically. ‘There are practically no tickets on February flights. Tickets from Uzbek airlines were sold first due to their cheaper price, and then it was the turn for Transaero’, said Sergey Borovinskyi, the Head of Exotic Tourism Department of Ekaterinburg travel company Malachite.
In this situation local tour operating companies have only one alternative – to send their tourists via Moscow. According to Anna Megletskikh, Sales Director of UralSibTour, the easiest variant at present is to buy tickets from Moscow tour operators through agent chains. However, as Moscow companies try to keep balance between tourist and flight traffic, Ekaterinburg companies have to send their tourists through Moscow operators, who in this situation act as agents. Such a scheme results into $150 more expensive tickets for tourists.
Experts forecast increase in demand for exotic countries in the Ural region will continue. Therefore, local tour operators will have to change their flight programs for spring.
