Russia and Turkey will oblige tour operators to transfer Air Anka and TailWind passengers

Tour operators will be required to transfer passengers of Air Anka and TailWind airlines, whose operations have been discontinued in the Russian Federation since May 25, to other flights. This was announced on May 29 by the Russian Ministry of Transport.

This decision, as noted, was made during a meeting between Vladimir Poteshkin, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, and Tanju Bilgic, the authorized Ambassador of Turkey to Moscow. They came to him after it became clear that the designated carriers had managed to sell their cargo capacities to tour operators before the end of October.

"It was decided to oblige tour operators to arrange passenger transfers on flights of Russian airlines or on flights of Turkish air carriers approved for flights to Russia. <...> The situation with transportation between the countries is under constant control of the Russian Ministry of Transport and the Federal Air Transport Agency," the agency said in a message on the Maks messenger.

Now the flight program, which was planned to be implemented before June 16, 2026, will be provided by replacing Air Anka with the national carrier Turkish Airlines and Corendon Airlines. By the same date, representatives of the interstate aviation authorities will take part in consultations and agree on new routes.

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Employees of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) reported a day earlier that approximately 2.1 thousand tourists from the Russian Federation faced the cancellation of Air Anka flights on May 26 and 27. Representatives of the Anex travel agency explained that the situation was due to "operational necessity."

On May 28, Izvestia published footage from Aerogavan, where thousands of Russians were blocked. Those who got into the problem clarified that they had been waiting for departure for several hours in the complete absence of official information.