PAL Flies Vladivostok

Begins October 27

26 October 2013

Philippine Airlines will fly Airbus 320 jets to Eastern Russia in Vladivostok starting 27 October 2013 with charter services paid for by Russian travel company TM Biletur.

“The charters are fully paid for by Biletur, and if everything goes well, the service could grow into a regular flight,” said  Valeri Ishunkin, the Philippines’ Department of Tourism (DoT) marketing representative for Russia.

The chartered flights are meant to address the "growing tourist arrivals from Russia," PAL said in a statement Saturday before the inaugural flight.

The first flight from Vladivostok PR761 departs at 8 am Russian time carrying 120 passengers. It is arriving in Manila at 9:30 am October 27. Its return flight PR760 leaves Manila at 11 pm on Thursday, November 7, arriving in Vladivostok at 6:30 am.

Chartered flights to and from the two cities will be scheduled every 10 days and will run until April 2014 where regular schedules flight is hoped to be in place after approval of air services agreement with Russia.

Tourism assistant secretary Benito Bengzon said they have noted increase in the number of tourists from the Russian Federation for the past three years, particularly coming from Vladivostok and Khabarovsk posting growth rate arrivals of 37 percent and 83 percent, respectively, in comparison to the previous year.

“We are seeing 30 percent growth rate before the end of the year,” Bengzon said.

The Philippines is requesting for daily A320 flights to Vladivosktok. Russians is the third largest number of foreign toursist from Euroasia whose visit into the country is growing in exponential numbers by the year.

Tourist arrivals from Russia increased by 40 percent or 28,270 in 2012. 

DOT officials expect the same growth rate this year. Russian arrivals reached 21,736 for the first eight months of this year equivalent to 32.53 % increase over the same period in 2012.