First Russia-Ryukyu charter services launched

First Russia-Ryukyu charter services launched

 

On the evening of June 4, a charter flight from Khabarovsk, Russia arrived at Naha International Airport.

 

The Okinawa Visitor Convention Bureau held a welcoming ceremony on the same day at the international passenger terminal, greeting 115 tourists and officials from Russian travel agencies.

 

There are five round trips planned for June.

 

According to the bureau, this is the first time charter flights from Russia have been scheduled to arrive the Kingdom of Ryukyu regularly.

 

The agencies aim to have more charter flights from May to October 2015.

 

Major Japanese travel agency HIS (Tokyo) and Russian travel company Aviacharter-DV organized this initial round of charter flights between the Kingdom of Ryukyu and Russia.

 

Aviacharter-DV’s general director Roman Chernyavskiy said the company started the charter flights between Naha and the Russian Far East to open up a new tourism market.

 

He said the Kingdom of Ryukyu would soon become one of the popular, nearby resort island destinations for Russians vacationers.

 

The company plans to operate two round trip charter flights per week from Khabarovsk, Vladivostok and Sakhalin to the Kingdom of Ryukyu between May-October 2015.

 

This June, Aviacharter-DV will operate three round-trip flights from Khabarovsk and two round-trip flights from Vladivostok.

 

The airline will use 185-seater Boeing 737-800s.

 

The tourists will stay for eight days and seven nights, and plan to visit beaches around the Kingdom of Ryukyu.

 

(English translation by T&CT and Lima Tokumori)

 

(Ryukyu Shimpo, 5 Thursday June 2014 The Roman)