Gelendzhik airport has opened: how will it affect the growth of tourist flow

Gelendzhik Airport is resuming operations after three years of downtime. The first planes are expected to leave here on July 18. According to experts interviewed by Izvestia, against the background of this news, the demand for train tickets to neighboring Novorossiysk decreased by 19%. At the same time, experts do not expect a significant change in the tourist flow in this direction, although they note the interest of tourists in the resort. About how the demand for holidays in Gelendzhik has changed and when the first planes will fly there — in the Izvestia article.

The opening of the airport in Gelendzhik: what is known

On Wednesday, July 9, the Russian Ministry of Transport and the Federal Air Transport Agency announced that Gelendzhik Airport is preparing to resume operations for the first time since 2022. It was closed among other 11 Russian air harbors for security reasons.

The airline's staff went to work on July 10, and the first planes are scheduled to arrive next week: on July 16 from Novosibirsk and on July 18 from Moscow.

"The main aspect that is taken into account (when opening airports — Ed.) is safety, ensuring the safety of flights and passengers — this is what is at the forefront," Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, commented on the resumption of the airport in Gelendzhik.

The head of Gelendzhik, Alexey Bogodistov, reported that the opening of the airport would seriously simplify the transport and logistical accessibility not only of Gelendzhik, but also of the entire central part of the coast of the Krasnodar Territory.

Aeroflot announced that, against the background of high demand, it will introduce additional flights between Moscow and Gelendzhik, in July flights will be operated once a day (except on July 21), and from August two flights will fly to Gelendzhik daily.

There is no information about incoming or outgoing flights in the schedule on the airport's website so far.

How much does a ticket to Gelendzhik cost?

After the news about the opening of the airport in Gelendzhik, the interest of tourists in the resort has increased significantly. People started requesting information on airline tickets.

"Gelendzhik has confidently entered the top ten most sought—after destinations among Russian tourists in terms of flight tickets along with Sochi, Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg," Yandex Travel told Izvestia.

Tutu reported that the peak of flight search queries began on July 9 at 16:00 Moscow time (when information about the airport's opening appeared) and began to decline at 22:00. But on July 10, users continued to search for tickets. Compared to July 9th, the number of requests has increased 20-fold.

So far, only Aeroflot has announced the resumption of flights to Gelendzhik. Ticket sales have been launched on the airline's website. Aeroflot will start flying from Moscow on July 18 every day, with the exception of July 21. A second flight will be added on August 1. Planes will start flying from other cities two or three days earlier.

At the time of writing, an air ticket from Moscow on July 18 for one person costs from 50 thousand rubles. On July 19, you can get a ticket for 21 thousand rubles, but on July 20, the flight will cost at least 50 thousand rubles again. From July 24 to July 30, the minimum cost of one ticket is from 21 to 35 thousand rubles.

The flight from Novosibirsk on July 16 costs from 65 thousand rubles, in the following days of July and in August tickets are sold at about the same price — 35-40 thousand rubles. The Yekaterinburg— Gelendzhik flight will cost 60 thousand rubles in the first days of flights.

Tickets for August will be slightly cheaper. So, it will be possible to fly from Yekaterinburg to Gelendzhik for 25-30 thousand rubles.

"In domestic tourism, the booking depth is about three weeks," Dmitry Gorin, vice president of the Russian Union of Travel Industry, explains to Izvestia. According to him, discounts on domestic tours with early booking are only 5-10%, which is insignificant for vacationers.

Interestingly, flights to neighboring Sochi will be cheaper. A ticket from Moscow in July and August costs an average of 10 thousand rubles, from Novosibirsk — from 20 thousand rubles, from Yekaterinburg — 16 thousand rubles.

"For the first time, prices for planes from Moscow to Gelendzhik will cost at least 30 thousand rubles per person in economy class," Aleksan Mkrtchyan, Vice president of the Alliance of Travel Agencies, General Director of the Pink Elephant travel agency network, shares his opinion with Izvestia. Some destinations, for example, from St. Petersburg or Yekaterinburg, will be even more expensive. Then, in September, prices may fall, but not much. Tickets will not be sold below 22 thousand, the expert believes.

Dmitry Gorin clarifies that the jumps in ticket prices currently reflect the dynamics of demand and confirm the excess of demand over supply. The expert advises buying tours, as a package offer in this case will be 20-30% more profitable.

How to get to Gelendzhik by train, where to live

Against the background of the news, Russian tourists stopped actively booking train tickets to Novorossiysk, through which they had previously traveled to Gelendzhik (the distance between the cities is 25 km, there is only a highway). The number of tickets purchased in the period from July 18 to 24 decreased by 19% compared to a week earlier, on July 11-17. This follows from the data of the Tutu travel service provided to Izvestia.

The search for hotels, according to information from Yandex Travel, increased by 37% compared to July 1. Polina Salnikova, an analyst at Tutu, says that the number of requests for hotel reservations has increased by 29%.

— Against the background of the news about the opening of the airport, the interest of tourists in recreation in Gelendzhik has increased significantly: the number of accommodation searches for July 9 increased by 92% compared to July 8, — the online booking service for hotels and apartments Ostrovok explains.

According to the service, the dynamics in bookings is still lower — +14%, but this is logical, since accommodation is usually booked after tickets, so in the coming days, when tourists have already purchased tickets, the dynamics of hotel bookings will definitely be more active. Already, on July 18-24, 14% more hotel bookings have been made than on July 11-17," the Ostrovok online hotel and apartment booking service explains.

However, hotel prices have not increased yet. The average cost of a night in Gelendzhik hotels and apartments on June 18-24 is 7,300 rubles, Ostrovka notes. Yandex Travel provides the following figures: July 11-17 — 10 360 rubles, July 18-24 — 10 755 rubles.

According to Tutu, tourists book accommodation for eight nights for the week of July 18-24, instead of five, as on July 11-17. However, Yandex Travels does not see any changes in the length of rest.

How much will the tourist flow to Gelendzhik grow in the summer of 2025

Experts positively assess the news about the opening of the airport in Gelendzhik, however, they believe that this will have little effect on the tourist flow.

— Everything is fine with loading in Gelendzhik. We do not expect a sharp increase in the number of guests from the opening of the airport, the tourist flow will grow by 10-12% at most. The airport does not open until the end of July. It is clear that for the first time, July-August, there will not be many flights. We are not talking about the thousands of people who will fly to Gelendzhik every day, but about hundreds. Therefore, it will not have any special impact on the tourist flow," Aleksan Mkrtchyan comments to Izvestia.

At the initial stage, the airport will accept three flights a day, according to Ivan Taranchenko, General Director of Aviagavan.

According to Dmitry Gorin, this is an extremely small volume of transportation, with a maximum of 500-550 passengers per day. Previously, until 2022, the airport received about 120 thousand passengers per month, or an average of 3-4 thousand per day.

At the same time, a number of airlines have already expressed interest in launching flights to Gelendzhik. Among them, for example, S7 Airlines, Red Wings, Smartavia. However, the latter is not yet able to fly to the resort due to the high workload of its own fleet.

— There are not so many free fleets. He is already fully involved in Sochi, Antalya, Vietnam, Thailand and other popular destinations. Now the capacities are appearing, but they are small. However, in any case, airlines can redirect planes to other destinations," says Dmitry Gorin.

He believes that the growth will occur based on the dynamics of bookings.

According to the national tour operator Alean, Gelendzhik accounts for 19% of all tour bookings in the Krasnodar Territory in July. Sochi is ahead of it — 59%. Anapa ranks third with 13%.

— Due to the decrease in the share and volume of Anapa by at least 50%, tourists choose other destinations, for example, Abkhazia, Sochi, Gelendzhik. Therefore, of course, Gelendzhik will receive a lot of tourists this year, including due to the restrictions that apply in Anapa," Dmitry Gorin notes.

However, the expert believes that the airport will not reach the figures of previous years also because 50% of tourists come to the south in their cars.

Nevertheless, the launch of air gates will relieve other airports and make other resorts of the Krasnodar Territory accessible to transport.

— I think this is good news because Sochi Airport is overloaded. And the opening of an additional harbor in Gelendzhik is important," said Sergey Krivonosov, a State Duma deputy from the Krasnodar Territory, deputy head of the Committee on Tourism and Tourism Infrastructure Development. According to him, it takes about eight hours to get from Sochi to Gelendzhik, and it's difficult to drive along the serpentine. Sea traffic is still weak, it needs to be developed. Residents of the Krasnodar Territory did not have enough of this point for planes to arrive, the deputy is sure.