The number of issued one-way flight tickets from Russia increased 27% the week President Vladimir Putin declared on Sept. 21 the country's first mobilization since World War Two, according to flight ticketing data from Spain-based ForwardKeys on Tuesday.
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The mobilization of men to fight in Ukraine has prompted thousands of fighting-age men to flee Russia to avoid a draft that was billed as enlisting those with military experience and specialties but has often appeared oblivious to service records, health, student status and even age.
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The data, which compared bookings from Sept. 21 to Sept. 27 to the week prior, shows the share of one-way tickets issued jumped to 73% the week of the announcement compared with 47% the previous week.
"These numbers are quite remarkable and correlate with reports at the time of a sudden increase in ticket sales,” said Olivier Ponti, ForwardKeys' vice president of insights.
{{/usCountry}}"These numbers are quite remarkable and correlate with reports at the time of a sudden increase in ticket sales,” said Olivier Ponti, ForwardKeys' vice president of insights.
{{/usCountry}}Sixty percent of tickets purchased the week of the announcement had a departure date within 15 days, up from 45% compared with the week prior. The average lead time to departure decreased from 34 to 22 days, the company said.
According to ForwardKeys' air travel booking data, there was a triple-digit increase for the week ended Sept. 27 in one-way tickets from Russia to the cities of Tbilisi, Georgia; Almaty, Kazakhstan; Istanbul, Turkey; Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.