Russia will suspend flights with Turkey and Tanzania for a month and a half

The Russian operational headquarters suspended flights with Turkey and Tanzania from April 15 to June 1 due to the epidemiological situation with coronavirus. This is stated in the telegram channel of the Moscow operational headquarters.

Two flights a week from Moscow to Istanbul and back will be maintained, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova commented at a briefing, Interfax reports . According to the agency, an exception will also be flights organized to return Russian citizens to the country.

The operational headquarters writes that Russians who find themselves in Turkey will have the opportunity to continue their vacation or return on charter flights. It is clarified that Russian tour operators were advised to suspend the sale of tours to Turkey until June 1, and tourists who bought a trip with a departure before this date were advised to change their vacation destination or reschedule their trip.

In addition, Rostourism has been instructed to take a package of measures to help tourists, including financial ones, reports the operational headquarters. The message emphasizes that air traffic with Turkey and Tanzania will be resumed if the epidemiological situation in these countries stabilizes. According to Golikova, in this case, Russians will be promptly informed, and they will be able to buy tours to these states, Interfax reports.

Turkey was one of the first countries to resume regular flights after they were closed in March 2020. According to the analytical service ATOR, for the period from April 15 to May 31, more than 500 thousand Russians booked tours to Turkey, of which more than 40% are families with children, the Moscow agency writes . It is clarified that the total cost of the booked tours is 32 billion rubles.

On April 6, the head of Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova said that Turkey accounts for the majority of cases of coronavirus strains “brought” to Russia. “Both the British variant and the South African variant were brought from different countries, but only from Turkey we had both variants imported by different people and at different times,” she said.

According to Popova, almost 80% of those who returned to Russia with coronavirus recently arrived from Turkey. She added that the British strain of coronavirus has been detected in all provinces of Turkey.