Russians who want to fly to a foreign destination in the coming days will have to dig deep into their pockets. The ticket prices for a direct flight are between 800 and 12,000 euros for a single journey. This is evident from an analysis of available data and prices on Google Flights, a site that tracks available flight options.

Western countries have closed their airspace due to international sanctions against Russia. The number of direct destinations from Moscow is therefore a lot more limited than before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. In the last days of September, tickets are only available from the Russian capital to some Turkish cities such as Istanbul and Antalya, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, cities in the Caucasus and destinations in Central Asia. However, these tickets are much more expensive than normal. The cost for a one-way ticket to the Armenian capital Yerevan amounts to about 11,000 euros and a one-way ticket to a destination in Central Asia costs 1,000 to 4,000 euros.

Last week, Russian President Putin announced his intention to recruit more than 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine. As a result, the crowds at border crossings of neighboring Russian countries that are accessible by car would have increased considerably. Armenia and Georgia previously reported mass arrivals of Russians who want to cross the border by car. These destinations are especially popular because Russians in these countries do not require a visa. Finnish border guards also spoke of a more than doubling of traffic from Russia last Friday and long queues were also noticed at the Mongolian border, according to media reports.

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* Origin: AVIATION ECHO HQ (2:292/854)