Russia, Thailand to increase direct flights

The number of direct flights between Russia and Thailand is set to almost double after the Thai cabinet approved a proposed agreement to increase flight frequencies, the Bangkok Post reported.

The agreement increases Moscow-Bangkok direct flights to 70 from 40 a week and doubles weekly frequencies on the St. Petersburg-Phuket route to 28, according to the report. A Chiang Mai-Irkutsk daily flight will be replaced with a Krabi-Novosibirsk service.

The memorandum of understanding will take effect after an exchange of documents between the two foreign ministries, Thai government spokesman Maj Gen Sansern Kaewkamnerd told the paper.

A total of 884,085 visitors from Russia came to Thailand last year, accounting for around 3 percent of the total, but the number of visitors from Russia slumped 44.97 percent from 2014.

The decline was due to the impact of falling oil prices and Western sanctions on the Russian economy and consumer spending.

In January this year, over 138,000 Russians visited Thailand, a 4.6 percent drop from the previous year.