Kazan jacks up the price for 2018 World Cup: flight tickets to Kazan are going up in price faster than to neighbouring cities

It is more than half a year before the World Cup left, but the flight tickets to the host cities has grown by up to 40%

The 2018 FIFA World Cup takes place only next summer, but it has already affected the flight ticket prices. The ticket prices to host cities of the World Cup have already grown by 40%. Kazan is no exception. What is more, the rate growth to Kazan has turned out to be higher than to other host cities. It is also being felt a growth of flight ticket price from abroad. Read the details in the material of Realnoe Vremya.

World Cup ramps up flight ticket prices by 40%

It is more than half a year before the World Cup left, but in the framework of the second stage it has been sold 98% tickets, and already now it raises the question how to get to a host city.

Kazan hosts four games of the group stage on 16,20, 24 and 27 June 2018, on 30 June – the knockout stage, on 6 July – the quarter-finals. As it turned out, it is better to buy tickets in advance, given the rush around the championship. According to Aviasales, on the day of quarter-finals, the ticket price from Moscow to the capital of Tatarstan will increase by 42% to 9,058 rubles. In comparison, usually the round-up ticket costs 6,366 rubles. The tickets to other hosts cities on the days of the matches have also increased by 40%.

Though the ticket prices from other cities to Kazan have risen not as much, but, taking into account differences in the cost of tickets, they still seem to be very noticeable. As PR director of the ticket search engine Aviasales Yanis Dzenis told Realnoe Vremya, the ticket prices to the quarterfinals of St. Petersburg have already grown by 11%, i.e. by more than a thousand rubles — from 9,692 rubles to 10,802 rubles.

The same story is with Crimea, from where the price of airline tickets have also increased by 11% — from 17,452 to 19,379 rubles. But from Krasnodar to Kazan the ticket of the day of the match will cost by 24% more — the ticket cost has increased from 8,071 to 10,071 rubles.

It is better to buy tickets in advance, given the rush around the championship. Photo: Maksim Platonov

If we look at other dates of the matches, it is already clear that prices for flights from Moscow on these days have also become higher by nearly 3,000 rubles — Aviasales shows all the same 9,058 in contrast to 6,366 on usual days. In order to buy a ticket for 6,000 rubles with pennies, one will have to look for a departure a few days before the match.

Expensive for the Germans Kazan and cheap Nizhniy Novgorod

In turn, analysts of the service momondo.ru calculated the arithmetic mean for tickets from abroad and found out that for the whole duration of the World Cup the flights to Kazan have risen by 4,2%. Its average price was 46,505 rubles.

''According to momondo.ru, the flight price to Kazan for the period of the matches of the 2018 World Cup for foreign tourists have increased by 4,2% compared to the average price of tickets in 2018. On average, the prices to host cities in Russia have increased by 2,2%,'' comments Irina Ryabovol, representative of the international tourist metasearch.

If we consider the dynamics separately for places of departure, it is noticeable that it is very different. For the most active tourists in the championship — residents of Germany — the flight will cost more by 42,6%. No less interested are the fans from Sweden and Denmark can purchase tickets by 5% and 4,2% less respectively.

As for other host cities, the experts from momondo.ru note that, for example, the ticket prices to Kaliningrad currently have fallen by 25%, and to Nizhniy Novgorod — by 13%, which cannot said about the most popular Russian cities — Moscow, Sochi and Saint-Petersburg, the flight prices have risen by 5,7%, 9,3% and 1,7%, respectively. There is growth in other host cities, too. It will cost to fly to Yekaterinburg from abroad by 19,1% more expensive, with the average cost at the time of the World Cup of 46,697 rubles, to Rostov-on-Don — by 9,9% with 44,163 rubles for tickets, to Saransk — by 10,5% at a price of 52,687 rubles, to Volgograd — by 7,6% with an average cost of 44,859 rubles.

It is possible that the prices for services of the Russian Railways will ramp up unless the anti-monopoly service has its say. Photo: tvc.ru

The situation with trains is more difficult

If foreign tourists have no other choice, many Russian football fans, who wish to attend the championship in Kazan as well as in other host cities, it seems, will have to look to alternative means of transport. The services to find a travel companion are always there to help. But the situation with the trains is unclear yet. It is possible that the prices for services of the Russian Railways will ramp up unless the anti-monopoly service has its say. The FAS of Russia has tried this year to reduce the train tickets by 10% against the request of the Railways to raise them by 3,9%.

In the summer, the cost of travel by train traditionally increases. Now the ticket from Kazan to Moscow in the couchette car costs the same as in the summer cost in the sitting accommodation — a little more than 800 rubles.

By Maria Gorozhaninova