Experts from the travel service Tutu.ru analyzed how demand for flights to the US changed following the deterioration of the US visa situation. They compared ticket sales from January to the end of May 2018 with the same period in 2017.
It turned out that Demand for flights to the United States has fallen almost in half. From January to May 2017, the United States accounted for 5,841,000 tickets sold to non-CIS countries. For the same period this year, the number of tickets purchased for this route fell to 3,981,000 tickets sold.
Interestingly, flight prices have remained virtually unchanged over the year. One-way tickets remained the same (around 16,000 rubles), while round-trip fares actually dropped by 41%—from 29,100 to 28,000 rubles.
In the summer of 2017, the US Embassy in Moscow temporarily suspended visa issuance. Furthermore, the country's consulates general in Russia's regions also suspended accepting applications. Currently, US visa applications can only be submitted in Moscow. According to media reports, the wait time for US nonimmigrant visa interviews has increased to 300 days.
Source: trn-news.ru
