For the first time in recent history: a plane from Vladivostok landed in Simferopol

Simferopol International Airport received a direct flight from Vladivostok. The 522-seat Boeing 747 double-decker airliner arrived in Crimea on July 11 with a full load, the correspondent of the Travel Portal reports from the scene.

Direct air traffic between the capitals of Crimea and Primoryeh was launched for the first time in the modern history of the country. Earlier the flights from Vladivostok were done only with intermediate landings at other airports. The flight was operated by Rossiya Airlines, together with the Biblio-Globus tour operator.

This event is really significant for the Simferopol airport, so the flight was welcomed with ceremony. The airport greeted guests from Vladivostok with a "water arch". A plane 8 meters high and with a wingspan of 65 meters passed through water jets directed at each other from fire engines. The first passengers were met by Vadim Volchenko − the Minister of Resorts and Tourism of the Republic, Evgeniy Plaksin − the Director-General of Simferopol International Airport LLC, Sergey Starikov − the official representative of Rossiya Airlines and Irina Kostenko − the managing director of the Biblio-Globus tour operator.

"For us direct air traffic is extremely important.  This is convenient and affects the cost, accessibility, and also contributes to the growth of the tourist flow to the region and the economic growth of the Republic of Crimea, so − be welcome!" — said the head of the Ministry of Resorts and Tourism, Vadim Volchenko.

"For our airport, for Crimea and for all of Russia, a historic event has occurred today. For the first time a direct non-stop regular air service between Simferopol and Vladivostok has been opened. Earlier in this direction there were single flights, for example, in 2015, but with intermediate landings at other airports. A full capacity flight indicates the popularity of the route.  After the opening of flight traffic with Vladivostok, the geography of flights to Crimea expanded to 56 routes", — said Yevgeny Plaksin.

"With this flight, we begin a vast flight program from the Far East. Last week, the first flights arrived from Khabarovsk. The today’s flight was performed by the Tigrolet Airlines, which many people know and this will also be a kind of surprise. In total, the airline has two flight programs as for Crimea: it is a regular transportation program and a flight program for popular tourist destinations. These are flights to Crimea from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, and now two more cities have been added − Vladivostok and Khabarovsk", — said Sergey Starikov, official representative of Rossiya Airlines.

"There is good demand for Crimea. According to the results of 2020, we plan to bring more than half a million people to the resorts of the Crimean peninsula. I hope that together with our partner Rossiya Airlines and Simferopol Airport, which is wonderful and meets all modern requirements, we and all the accommodation facilities of Crimea will do this work. I am sure that it will be successful", — said Irina Kostenko, managing director of the Biblio-Globus tour operator.

According to the airport’s press service, flights between Simferopol and Vladivostok will be carried out every week: from Vladivostok − on Saturdays, from Crimea − on Sundays. The route will be the longest in the network of Simferopol Airport, the travel time is about 10 hours.