China
11:54, 27-Sep-2017
Chinese Embassy issues flight delay alert after airline called off service in Russia
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The Chinese Embassy in Russia has issued an alert of massive flight delay after Russian VIM-Avia airline on Monday canceled all its charter flight due to heavy losses.
The suspension of airline service has caused over 1,000 Chinese passengers stranded in Russia, and some other hundreds in Belgium’s airports.
The Chinese Embassy in Russia said it keeps in touch with the relevant agencies in Russia and watches closely on the progress of the incident. The embassy has asked Russia to deal with the stranded Chinese passengers and arrange for proper placement work under current conditions.
The embassy reminded Chinese citizens who intend to travel to Russia or make a transfer via Russia to pay attention to the latest flight information and plan for schedules accordingly.
Nearly 39,000 Russian tourists who were to fly back home on VIM-Avia planes are staying abroad, Russian News Agency TASS reported on Tuesday, citing the Head of the Federal Tourism Agency Oleg Safonov. Safonov added that the carrier sold as many as 196,633 tickets as of Monday and most of the sold tickets cover the period until the end of October.
VIM-Avia is Russia's 10th largest carrier in terms of passenger numbers. The private airline said it was planning to go into a receivership due to financial hardship.
The Association of Tour Operators of Russia said the battered airline had accumulated between 3 billion rubles (52.2 million US dollars) and 10 billion rubles (174 million US dollars) in debt.
The association added that some 200,000 passengers including 100,000 Russian tourists who had planned to go on vacation in Russia and abroad may be affected.