The charter program of Vitebsk Airport will be supplemented with flights to Bulgaria this summer

The charter tourist program for the summer of 2015 from Vitebsk Airport has expanded to 33 flights and become more diverse compared to the previous season. Bulgaria has been added to the Turkish destination of Antalya. But this is not the limit: with high activity from future vacationers, the customer is ready to increase the number of flights by 1.5 and 2 times, respectively.

The service will be provided by the company "Belavia" on "Boeing 737-300" aircraft (up to 150 passengers). According to Dmitry Ryzhik, head of the authorized agency "Tez Tour" in Vitebsk, which is the customer of the flights, the first departure to Antalya is scheduled for June 1. Holidays of 7, 10, and 15 days will be available at Turkish resorts, and the program will end in the 20s of September. The Bulgarian destination will open on May 30 and will operate until September 12.

While sales are proceeding calmly, the agency serves 10-15 clients per day. According to Dmitry Ryzhik's assessment, there is a 15-20% increase in the cost of tours to Turkey compared to 2014. However, their price remains attractive, and many hotels offer significant discounts for early bookings. If up to 70% of tours are sold by early March, a decision will be made to expand the program, and Belavia's technical capacity allows for this. Additionally, the possibility of extending the flight program to Egypt's resorts for September-October is being explored. In other words, in the upcoming season, 5 to 8 thousand tourists will be able to vacation by the sea with departures from Vitebsk, which is 1.5 to 2 times more than last year. Incidentally, Vitebsk charters were the best in terms of occupancy among Tez Tour branches based on the results of 2014: only 13 seats were empty on flights to the south then.

While the runway of Vitebsk Airport is regularly "polished" by the national airline, which is studying the economics and feasibility of organizing a regular domestic flight Minsk _ Vitebsk. But, judging by the news, other players are also showing interest in the Belarusian passenger air transportation market. Thus, the airline "AirBaltic", which currently operates flights from Riga to Minsk, does not exclude the possibility of opening flights to regional airports in Belarus in the future, in particular, to Vitebsk. In addition, the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Belarus will be working in 2015 to stimulate flights of foreign airlines to the country's airports. According to the press service of the Ministry of Transport, this concerns the airlines "Dynamic Airways" (USA), "El Al" (Israel), SCAN (Kazakhstan), as well as airlines "International Airlines of Ukraine", "Uzbekistan Airways".

Sergey Antonov, "Vitebskiye Vesti"