11/08/2019 16:39

Moscow-Pisa

[IMG=18865-4506] In the coming season there will be new options for passengers travelling from Moscow to Italy. Two tour operating companies – Ital Travel and Intourbureau Omega – plan to launch a charter flight from Moscow to Pisa, with VIM-Avia; the new service will compete with existing charter routes in to Rimini. Nelly Ionkina, the General Director of Ital Travel, explained the reasons for the launch: 'The decision was motivated by two factors: firstly, Rimini Airport is overloaded during the summer period; and secondly, all resorts in the region are too popular. Our aim is to bring something new to the travel market, something which can be interesting for everybody’. According to charter companies, both excursion and seaside programmes can be organized for those who fly to Pisa. The cost of flights is expected to be approximately the same as that to Rimini - about 230 Euro. Experts believe the new route will compete successfully with existing flights to Rimini, although they have divided opinions regarding the real reasons behind the new service. Some experts think the programme will simply become a new offer on the market, not to be compared with other programs; Elena Volodko, Director of the Italy Department of Lanta Tour-Voyage observed that: ‘Tuscany is absolutely different from other parts of the country. Russian tourists will discover new Italy’. But according to other experts, there are already enough charter flights to Italy in summer; therefore one more flight will be too much for the destination. ‘The flight to Pisa is unnecessary - charters to Rimini, Genoa, Naples, and Trieste are more reasonable, as these destinations are in great demand’, stated Executive Director of Mondo Tours, Lyubov Chistyakova. The more cautious experts emphasize that charter flights from Moscow to Pisa were initially discussed by many in the travel market several years ago, and have been slow to get off the ground for several main reasons: firstly, it is quite difficult to attract necessary amount of traffic to resorts in Tuscany because they are up to 30% more expensive than those on the Adriatic Coast; secondly, there is a relative shortage of hotels in the area; and finally, it suffers from not being a coastal resort.