The direction of flight of tourists from Israel has been named: Russians have begun to hand over their vouchers

The Russian airline has launched free export flights from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone. Preliminarily, they will last until October 16. We found out who is in a hurry to use them, and where Israelis and Palestinians are evacuating when they have the opportunity to leave the combat zone.

The domestic air carrier announced the start of evacuation flights for Russian citizens from Ben Gurion Airport to Moscow with a technical landing in Makhachkala on October 11, promising daily flights for at least 5 days.

“The plane will fly from Moscow once a day with an estimated time of arrival in Ben-Gurion around noon Moscow time (in Israel it is the same – author), in order to fly back with people at 14.00,” the carrier explains. – This is a special flight, there are no sales for it. Export applications are accepted at the Russian diplomatic mission.

At the same time, the same airline continues regular flights from Russian cities to Tel Aviv and back as usual, with a full cabin of passengers in both directions at prices ranging from 154 to 174 thousand rubles one way per person.

According to the Russian Ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov, there are already hundreds of applications for evacuation from Russian citizens, but most of them are not from tourists, but from permanent residents who have retained Russian citizenship.

“Those who left Russia also call us,” the Russian representative office in the Palestinian Authority shares on condition of anonymity. – Mostly those who did it recently. We answer that preferences are given to employees of Russian missions in the conflict zone and their families and organized tourists. And we add that Ben-Gurion operates almost normally, you can buy a ticket for any flight to anywhere on the planet.

In the first two days of the conflict, European and American airlines began to cancel their flights en masse, including Canadian, German, Greek, French and other EU carriers. We are interested in how things are going for our compatriots working at the Israeli international airport.

“Israel is full of European and American representative offices, companies and just tourists, some of whom had purchased tickets in their hands,” shares Anna, an employee of Ben-Gurion’s ground services. “And now they’ll have to fly in circles to get home at exorbitant prices.” For canceled flights, money will not be returned immediately. In the first days, the Russians and Emirates flew the best. But today two Emirati carriers have also reduced flights. For now, supposedly temporarily, until October 31. But the Turks, on the contrary, restored some of their flights to their previous volume.

– Why don’t package tourists sign up for export trips? – I inquired from a domestic tour operator who was selling Israel before the bloodshed began there.

“We have a maximum package of 10 days, this is treatment at the Dead Sea,” answers the manager for Israel. – Israel turned out to be a very expensive trip, so there were few sales, and it so happened that for those who are now there, their tours are already coming to an end. They have paid for their return tickets; our airline did not cancel flights, so there is no need for them to occupy evacuation seats.

– And those who have your Israeli “package” in their hands for November, what do they say?

– For the first three days, no one passed the test, but now, apparently, they’ve seen enough of the news and the refusals started coming. There are only a few reservations left for the end of November, probably from the bravest and most optimists. But I want to emphasize that even in Israel itself, some continue to be brave. Our lady went on a beauty tour, plastic surgery and rehabilitation at the Dead Sea. We called her with an offer to pick her up ahead of schedule, otherwise she still had a whole month after the operation. And she told us: no way! But she really doesn’t go anywhere, as is recommended to all tourists who find themselves in Israel these days.

The survey shows that there are such people among future tourists.

– Cancellation is not forced? – clarifies a couple from Moscow, who have a tour to Israel at the end of November. – Do you want to give it up, do you want to go? We paid more than 5 thousand dollars for two people in a week and still don’t believe that they will take us like that and return every penny. That’s why we’re not renting anything out yet. If it calms down even a little, we’ll go as planned.

Meanwhile, according to the Turkish press, tourists from Israel are arriving en masse in Antalya. This is also confirmed by Ben-Gurion’s Russian-speaking employees.

“Those who have money fly to Antalya,” says a compatriot who works at the ground terminal of the Israeli airport. – Probably further from there, but tickets are taken specifically to Antalya, fortunately, the Turkish carrier regularly flies there.

But the Palestinians would like to flee, but have nowhere to go.

“Only the richest fly to Europe,” explains Abdul Jamal from Jericho. “And the poor have nowhere to go.” Do you know that Palestinians don’t have passports? Since there is no such thing as Palestine, then there is no such people, and the residents of the Palestinian autonomies have no documents. If you need to go abroad and have money, then a Palestinian goes and buys himself an Israeli red passport. Not secretly, you need to get permission first. Moreover, this passport indicates that you are Jordanian.

– Is there no Palestinian passport?

– It exists, but it is not recognized by almost anyone in the world; you cannot travel with it.