OREANDA-NEWS. September 29, 2010. Ural Airlines shows its cards with its latest product.

On 1 October 2010, the airline starts an air service to Sofia. It will be the first scheduled flight from the Urals to the Bulgarian capital.

During the many years of air transportation in Yekaterinburg, a flight to Sofia took place only once, and it was just a single charter.

An agreement in principle on the air service had been reached thanks to joint efforts of Ural Airlines and the Bulgarian Consulate in Yekaterinburg.

"During the recent five years, the number of visas issued to our country has increased more than fivefold," says Mr. Plamen Petkov, Bulgarian Consul in Ekaterinburg. "In the year 2010 alone we are seeing a 60 percent growth against 2009."

Most travellers, however, are usual tourists going yearly for holiday to seaside places like Albena, Slanchev Bryag, Zlatni Pyasatsi, which have now become a second home for them.

Now they can supplement beach holiday-making with sightseeing.

It only takes seven hours by train from Sofia to the seaside.

"Previously we only operated flights to Varna and Bourgas," says Mr. Kirill Skuratov, Ural Airlines Commercial Director.

"Bulgaria is a traditional favorite of our travellers for family vacations. One feels very comfortable there.

Bulgarians, their way of life, traditions and food are close to us. Besides, Russians have recently been increasingly interested in investing in real estate abroad."

Tour operators are preparing new programs for tourists. For example, Vedi Tourgroup Yekaterinburg places its stake on such tours as "A Week in Sofia", "Balneotherapy in Bulgaria", "Looking for Realty in Bulgaria", "Gastronomical Tours in Bulgaria", "Bulgarian Ski Resorts".

Besides, the new air service enables them to offer new sightseeing tours for school students in autumn and winter vacations:

Sofia + Budapest, Sofia + Vienna + Budapest, Sofia + Rome.

The Yekaterinburg-Sofia flights will take place once weekly on Fridays.