Russian Tourists Return to Nha Trang on Charter Flight After Three-Year Hiatus
A chartered aircraft carrying 231 passengers landed at Cam Ranh International Airport close to the coastal city of Nha Trang on Monday. This marked its comeback after a pause lasting three years.
As a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, direct flights between Russia and Nha Trang ceased operations at the beginning of 2022.
The Khanh Hoa Provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, along with Anex Vietnam and various local agencies, greeted the landing of Azu Air LLC’s Flight ZF2577 from Irkutsk International Airport at Cam Ranh Airport. They celebrated this event with a ceremonial water cannon salute and a traditional Vietnamese lion dance as a welcoming gesture for Russian tourists arriving in Nha Trang City.
The passengers on the chartered flights received keepsake presents as well. This initiative comes after the province’s tourism promotional activities in Russia, such as a conference held in Moscow.
According to the department, Russian tourists typically stay for at least five nights, mainly at three- to five-star hotels, as part of all-inclusive tour packages that explore Nha Trang's renowned attractions.
Anex Vietnam, which is leading the initiative for welcoming back Russian tourists, intends to run chartered flights originating from 11 different cities across Russia to Cam Ranh International Airport. The listed cities encompass Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Barnaul, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Tomsk, Novokuznetsk, and Blagoveshchensk.
The firm plans to operate around 12 chartered flights in March 2025, with this number rising to between 50 and 55 flights each month from April through June. The schedule will then be ramped up even more starting in July, aiming for 90 to 100 flights monthly during those months.
Prior to the onset of COVID-19, Russian tourists constituted the second-highest number of visitors in Khanh Hoa, totaling approximately 460,000 arrivals in 2019. However, due to the pandemic and related geopolitical challenges, these figures plummeted to around 14,000 in 2022 and increased slightly to 51,200 in 2023. By 2024, visitor numbers surged back up to 105,513, which is over twice as many compared to the prior year yet only amounts to about 22.8% of what was seen in 2019.
In 2025, Khanh Hoa plans to welcome approximately 11.8 million travelers, with an anticipated 5.2 million coming from abroad. The cumulative income generated from tourism is projected to amount to VND60 trillion (around US$2.35 billion).
Global entries surpassed 1.3 million, indicating an increase of 12.5%. Meanwhile, Russian entrants during the initial two months of the year climbed to 24,000, reflecting a significant rise of 73.15% from what was recorded in early 2024.