Russian air traffic through Serbia, Turkey and the UAE surges by over 200%

In response to media enquiries about the profile of travel from Russia in the light of sanctions, Olivier Ponti, VP Insights, ForwardKeys, said: “With many routes to and from Russia effectively closed, owing to the imposition of sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine, we are seeing air travel via Serbia, Turkey and the UAE surge by over 200% on pre-pandemic levels. Looking at tickets issued between 28th February (when sanctions were put in place) and 8th March (the latest available data), the top hubs for people travelling from Russia to Europe were via Turkey, Serbia and UAE. The top destination countries in Europe for transfers via Turkey were Germany, Italy, the UK, Spain and Greece; via Serbia were Montenegro, Cyprus, France, Switzerland and Italy; via the UAE were Cyprus, Germany, the UK, Italy and France. Turkey and the UAE also served as hubs to connect Russia with the USA ! and some Asian destinations.”

Olivier continued: “Looking at scheduled flight capacity prior to the imposition of sanctions (during the week of 21st February) compared to the latest available data (during the week of 7th March), there has been a 50% increase from Russia to Serbia a 12% increase to Turkey and a 5% increase to the UAE.”