Charter flights from Russia to Turkey to resume on July 7

“A charter flight application for a total of 17 flights from Russia to Turkey on July 7 has been approved,” the Turkish Directorate General of Civil Aviation (SHGM) said in a tweet.

All scheduled and charter slights into Turkey as well as over the country are approved by the SHGM. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin officially lifted restrictions on tourism in Turkey after mending ties with Ankara over its downing of one of Moscow’s warplanes in November 2014.

Putin signed a decree on June 30 lifting a ban on the sale of package tours in Turkey and ordered the government to permit charter flights to start flying to the country again. 

Turkey’s beleaguered tourism sector hopes to reap the fruits of a number of diplomatic steps to improve ties with Israel and Russia, as the number of foreign arrivals to the country plummeted to record lows.

In May, Turkey saw dramatic declines, mainly in arrivals from Russia and Western countries, amid rising security concerns and the diplomatic row with Russia, which was the second largest foreign tourist source for Turkey until recently.

The number of Russian tourists visiting Turkey declined by around 92 percent to 41,004 in May compared to the same month of 2015, while the number of arrivals from Germany dropped by 31.5 percent and from Britain by 29.4 percent to around 427,000 and 219,000, respectively.

The number of foreign people visiting Turkey decreased by 22.9 percent to 8.3 million in the first five months of the year compared to the same period of 2015, data also showed.