In the latest sign of consumers in Russia rapidly losing faith in the economy and losing interest in travel, a senior airport executive has commented that people there are no longer buying airline tickets several months in advance. The Reuters news agency reports that passenger traffic at Russia's second-biggest airport Sheremetyevo fell 17 percent in February year-on-year. "People don't know what is going to happen, so they are not buying tickets ahead of time," said the airport’s general director Mikhail Vasilenko. Aeroflot, Russia's biggest airline, flew almost 16 percent fewer passengers in February than the same month in 2008.

 

Stand By News, 2009-03-19