Following Vladimir Putin’s announcement on 21st September of a partial mobilisation in Russia, the first since World War 2, bookings on outbound flights from Russia soared. Tickets issued for Russian outbound travel in the seven days after the announcement (21-27 September) were 27% over the level they were for the previous seven days.
The share of one-way tickets jumped from 47% the week before, to 73% in the week of the mobilisation announcement.
The cities that were most booked were: Tbilisi, Georgia (up 629% week-over-week), Almaty, Kazakhstan (up 148%), Baku, Azerbaijan (up 144%), Belgrade, Serbia (up 111%), Tel Aviv Yafo, Israel (up 86%), Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (up 84%), Yerevan, Armenia (up 69%), Astana, Kazakhstan (up 65%), Khudzhand, Tajikistan (up 31%) and Istanbul, Turkey (up 27%).
60% of tickets issued had the travel date within 15 days of purchase, while for tickets purchased in previous week, that share was 45%. This caused average lead times to shorten from 34 to 22 days.
Focusing only on one-way tickets, destination cities that were grew the most, week-on-week were: Tbilisi – GE (up 654%), Almaty – KZ (up 435%), Belgrade – RS (up 206%), Baku – AZ (up 201%), Astana – KZ (up 187%), Bishkek – KG (up 149%), Istanbul – TR (up 128%), Tel Aviv Yafo – IL (up 127%), Dubai – UAE (up 104%) and Yerevan – AM (up 94%).
These numbers are quite remarkable and correlate with reports at the time of a sudden increase in ticket sales.
About ForwardKeys
Founded in 2010, ForwardKeys helps tourism organisations, hotels and retailers understand who is travelling where, when, and for how long. The figures are created using comprehensive ticketing data covering the globe, from online bookings to travel agencies and airlines.
