Sharjah or Abu Dhabi?

[IMG=21200-7046] Starting from the end of October direct flights to Sharjah or Abu Dhabi will be operated from Russia. Thus, Transaero plan to launch its first Boeing – 737 flight to Abu Dhabi from Moscow on October 28th and to Sharjah (Boeing – 767 flight) – on October 27th from St. Petersburg. In general, Russian tour operators appeal to the Transaero initiative. They believe that in spite of wide variety of flights to Dubai the flights will be operated at their full capacity. Thus, Ludmila Vetrova, Head of the Department of Croatia, Tunisia and the UAE, commented as follows: ‘both Sharjah and Abu Dhabi are conquering more and more popularity in the Russian market. Moreover, direct flights will be in demand with people traveling on business. Business contacts between the Emirates and Russia are becoming closer’. Meanwhile, experts say that direct flights will allow to reduce a price for tour packages given the cost reduction on transfer from Dubai airport - $60–70. Moreover, prices for plane tickets on Transaero flights are promised to be encouraging - $270, while to fly to Dubai by a charter flight costs around $330). Nevertheless, tour operators do not forecast the first flight to Abu Dhabi to be a great success: on October 12th there are tickets on sale still. Anaida Arutyunova, Senior Manager of Art-tour, said: ‘travel companies were informed about the flight late, when the majority of tourists had bought tickets on a flight to Dubai. Hotels are practically fully booked at the moment, therefore, it is evident the flight will not be operated at its full capacity. Besides, there can be problematic situation with visas – on October 24th Ramadan finishes, the holiday period starts and the Embassy will be closed for several days’. Beside lack of active promotion of the flight to Abu Dhabi, tour operators point out one more disadvantage of the new program to Abu Dhabi – inconvenient frequency of flights – once in two weeks. However, they believe Transaero will adopt changes to the frequency of flights and will make it more optimal – once in ten days. With the same frequency flights from St. Petersburg to Sharjah will be operated. The first flight is fully booked at the moment.