11/08/2019 16:51

There are two troubles in Saint Petersburg

[IMG=18410-4008] Saint-Petersburg firms that work with Egypt were unable to satisfy the existing demand for the New Year tours. The reason is in the lack of flights for high period, more specifically, in the politics of the only St. Petersburg carrier – ‘Pulkovo’. ‘The demand of tours to Egypt before New Year holidays is very high, but it is difficult to take up blocks’, explains Irina Amosova, deputy director of ‘Transbusinessline’ company. ‘Now practically all New Year tours are sold. With the help of several large operators we will try to add two more planes to the existing 9, we have already sent the coalition request to the airline company’, added Alexander Musikhin, director of tourism of ‘Rivierra’. Meanwhile, the end of November-beginning of December, according to local travel firms, on the opposite, is marked by low level of sales, usual to virtually all destinations. Many experts believe that the expensive air fares, a traditional problem for Petersburg for a long time, explains why it is so difficult to sell seats. Travel firms again mention ‘Pulkovo’ here. Dmitry Alexandrov, director of ‘Academia’ company is convinced that expensive tickets is resulted from the lack of competition. ‘The only carrier on our market can dictate prices. In Moscow the situation is different.’ This way, a weekly package to Egypt, with a 3* hotel, costs 100$ more expensive to a holiday-maker from Saint Petersburg compared to the capital. ‘The difference in the cost of trips has always existed,’ – confirms Vadim Akimov, managing director of ‘Avatara’. – ‘However St Petersburg tourists still prefer flying from their town: not many of them want to travel with changes, besides the cost of the railway tickets is quite high too’. A BANKO correspondent asked Vasiliy Naletenko, ‘Pulkovo’ director, to comment: ‘There are enough New Year flights to Egypt: last year there were 7, this year there are two more. We have seen and fulfilled all requests from travel companies, but we do not know anything about new ones’. According to Naletenko, prices for air flights correspond to the quality. Besides it is wrong to call ‘Pulkovo’ the only market player as charter flights from Saint Petersburg is carried out by ‘Transaero’, for example.