March 25, 2015. Starting from May 2015, no more flights will be operated from Yekaterinburg to Thailand as this destination is no longer profitable, director of Natalie Tours Yekaterinburg branch Oleg Higer informed UrBC.

‘These flights used to be operated all the year round for the last three years. However, this is no longer the case. Flights for March and April have already been scheduled, yet beginning in May, all of them will be cancelled. This means the only way to get to Thailand will be from Moscow,’ Higer explained.

He says the demand for trips to Thailand has been plummeting, since Yekaterinburg-based travelers cannot afford to cover this costly flight priced in US dollars or euros. It is thus no longer profitable for the tour operators to offer trips to Thailand.

‘The only Thailand-bound flights available are chartered ones, so their availability wholly depends on the orders tour operators can place,’ Koltsovo Airport’s press service says.

According to Higer, Thailand-headed passenger traffic halved in the winter of 2014/2015; the average amount of money spent on a trip there came to 46,000 RUR per person, whereas Russian tourists tend to spend an average of around 30,000 RUR when traveling to popular destinations abroad.

‘This means the amount of money Russian tourists can afford to spend on a vacation is only enough to cover the cost of the plane ticket to Thailand. Under these circumstances, going to, say, Egypt, the flight to which is shorter and therefore cheaper, makes much more sense,’ he said.