Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Chernyshenko instructed the Federal Tourism Agency, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation to organize the export of tourists from abroad through humanitarian channels.
According to the Association of Tour Operators of Russia, there are more than 150 thousand Russians abroad, of which more than 27 thousand people ended up in countries where it is currently problematic to fly to the Russian Federation.
These include states that have announced the closure of their airspace for all civil flights of Russian air carriers, as well as formally open countries, where after this announcement it became impossible to reach.
Thus, 16-18 thousand of our compatriots may be in the Caribbean.
Although Mexico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic have not closed their airspace to Russian aircraft, the previous transatlantic route cannot be built, taking into account EU and Canadian flight restrictions.
The largest tour operators announced the suspension of sales of programs and that all flights to these countries are planned only in an export format.
The main difficulties are associated with the export of tourists from the EU countries.
For example, on February 27, the Ural Airlines plane, which was flying for the Russians to Madeira, was forcibly deployed in the air and was forced to return to Moscow.
About 200 tourists from the Russian Federation are stuck on the island.
“Employees of the consular department have established contact with them,” according to the website of the Russian Embassy in Portugal.
- There is no threat to life and health.
We are working on options for organizing their flight to Moscow.
The necessary support, incl.
in the selection of temporary accommodation options, is provided by an initiative group of Russians permanently residing in this autonomous region of Portugal.
They also refuted the information published in the local media that the embassy in Lisbon is “inactive”, “silent” and “does not respond to requests”.
“We assume that technical factors could have an impact: the embassy website and its e-mail, located on the domain of the Russian Foreign Ministry mid.ru, became objects of a powerful cyber attack from the outside, as a result of which they work intermittently,” the diplomatic mission added.
“Until the last, they didn’t believe”
There are about 3.5 thousand Russians in Bulgaria, including organized and independent tourists, said the head of the Federal Tourism Agency Zarina Doguzova.
As the official said in her social media account, she had a telephone conversation with Bulgarian colleagues and asked for help to extend the stay of Russian tourists in local hotels, “if not on a gratuitous basis, then at least on the most acceptable conditions.”
Minister of Tourism of Bulgaria Hristo Prodanov assured the head of Rostourism that he "will make the necessary efforts to ensure a comfortable and safe stay for our tourists in Bulgaria, including assistance in accommodation in hotels on optimal conditions."
In addition, he offered assistance in organizing an air corridor for the export of Russian tourists, Zarina Doguzova added.
According to her, Rostourism is planning a series of similar calls with the ministers of tourism of a number of countries with which air traffic has been suspended in the near future.
In particular, negotiations have already been requested with the tourism department of Hungary, from where the first export flights were supposed to fly on February 28.
Now about 400 tourists cannot return home from there, according to ATOR analysts.
Muscovite Olga Petrova flew to Budapest on February 22 to celebrate her birthday with a friend.
She was supposed to fly away on February 27th.
“I will probably never forget this day.
Until recently, they did not believe that this would not be a “horror story from the EU and the USA”, but a reality.
Three hours before the flight, a message came home that the flight was cancelled.
We arrived at the airport, where they first reissued tickets for March 4 and gave a voucher for a hotel.
However, while they took us to the hotel, a letter came about the cancellation of this flight, too, ”she told RT.
While still at the airport, Olga also bought a ticket from another airline for March 2, but she suspects that this flight will not take place either.
“Many of our tourists from the flight were able to buy a flight to Helsinki via Germany and to Turkey,” she continues.
- But from Turkey, tickets from 65 thousand.
Many people don't have money because the cards don't work.
For many, their visa is ending, and for those who have it for a long time, they are afraid of cancellation due to exceeding the period of stay outside the Russian Federation.
People were going to apply to the embassy to be taken away by repatriation flights.
But it is not clear how quickly this will be organized.
The airline provided a hotel for only three nights.”
The girl plans to get to her friend's acquaintances in Serbia, who offered to stay with them for a week for free: “To be honest, my head is boiling.
It's hard to make decisions under this level of stress.
The websites of airlines, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Federal Tourism Agency practically do not work here, people exchange information in instant messengers or at the reception.
In general, there is panic.”
In Greece and Cyprus, there may be a total of about 4 thousand independent and organized tourists, according to ATOR.
“We are two adults and three children, the flight from Larnaca was supposed to take place at 15:20, but at four in the morning a message was received about its cancellation,” Muscovite Yulia told RT, “It’s good that we found out about this not at the airport, having passed all the cordons.
We bought tickets "Larnaca-Cairo-Hurghada-Moscow" with a departure at 19:00, I hope we will not get stuck in Egypt.
150 thousand rubles for five, plus tests for children cost Є75 - it is needed there by everyone who is not vaccinated and is over six years old.
However, some tourists still manage to get home relatively easily.
“We had a scheduled departure from Athens by the Greek airline at 8:15, but at half past six in the morning a message appeared that the flight had been canceled,” Georgy, a resident of St. Petersburg, told RT.
- As a result, it was decided to get to the airport and be determined on the spot.
At the airport, the representatives of the carrier changed the ticket for a ticket through Istanbul, without any additional payments and problems.
At the moment we are already in Istanbul, waiting for the next flight.”
"High load"
“Currently, due to the partial closure of the airspace, as well as the ongoing restrictions at some Russian airports, Russian citizens abroad may have difficulty returning home,” the Rostourism report says.
- Work on organizing the export of Russian citizens from European countries is carried out by the Federal Air Transport Agency together with the Russian Foreign Ministry and Rostourism.
After specifying the required carrying volumes, a schedule will be generated.
Russian airlines are ready to fulfill their obligations to passengers and deliver them home, subject to flexible approaches and constructive decisions of the aviation authorities of European countries on this issue.”
To get on the lists for export flights, you need to register in the Foreign Assistant mobile application of the Russian Foreign Ministry or leave a corresponding application on the hotline.
All the tourists interviewed by RT said that both the application and the phone lines are intermittent.
If you manage to get through, then the tourist must first listen to the lengthy message of the answering machine about the delivery of medicines and products to the house, and only then gets the opportunity to contact the operator.
The head of the Federal Tourism Agency said that the problem in the application is related to DDoS attacks, "work is underway to solve it."
In the official Telegram channel of the department, it was also noted that “due to frequent requests from citizens, failures in the operation of the application are possible” and “telephone line overload”.
At the same time, if tourists try to return through third countries at their own expense, without waiting for the organization of export flights, they will not be compensated for the purchase of air tickets and transfer, Zarina Doguzova added.