Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Russian Government to increase the number of flights between Russia and friendly states, the Russian Embassy in Colombo said yesterday.
The embassy statement came in few minutes after the first resuming flight of Russia’s largest charter airline, Azur Air arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) yesterday with 335 passengers on board.
The airline will operate four flights a week and Aeroflot with three flights a week making the total flights coming from Russia to seven.
Tourism Minister Harin Fernando in a tweet said that most seats of the flight have already been booked up to end January.
The Sri Lankan embassy in Moscow said that the Azur Air will operate charter services from Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk which are considered to be highly viable regions for Sri Lanka tourism promotion.
The airline then wishes to venture into regular flight operations to Colombo having concluded necessary formalities.
Given that the Russian Federation is an important tourist traffic source to Sri Lanka, the Embassy is of the view that this initiative will substantially contribute to achieve Sri Lanka’s tourism sector targets in the years to come while enhancing the foreign exchange position of the country at this trying time, the Sri Lankan mission in Moscow said.
