Cancun, Q.R. — On Sunday, more than 400 Russian tourists left Cancun International bound for Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. Most of them were forced to extend their stay due to the continued cancellation of flights.
Although Mexico has not closed its borders to flights from Russia, some Russian tourists commented that they had difficulty getting tickets back to their home country. Many of the Russian passengers waited several hours at the Cancun airport for a plane ticket on the flight that finally left just after 5:00 p.m.
One man, who preferred anonymity for fear of reprisals, commented that his stay had to be extended “several days because the flight he had scheduled was suspended and he was on a waiting list.”
Initially, he said, his stay was for 10 days, “but it was extended by three more days.”
Other tourists who were in Terminal 4 of the Cancun airport, where the Nordwind and Azur lines operate, explained that they arrived in Mexico several weeks ago, and although they planned to visit various areas of the country, they decided to leave Mexico early due to a possible closure of borders that could prevent them from returning home.
In Terminal 3 of the Cancun airport, also where foreign airlines operate, Aeroflot signs have been removed after the airline announced the total suspension of its flights as of March 8.
According to The Moscow Times, Aeroflot has announced the “temporary suspension of all international flights from March 8,” citing new “circumstances that impede the operation of flights,” after announcing last week that their flights would continue as scheduled while airlines changed routes to their destinations, which included Cancun.
The airline did say that all their domestic routes would continue unchanged as well as flights to neighboring Belarus.
The Secretary of Tourism of Quintana Roo announced that they will keep the Guest Assist app active, which through a telephone center that is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with bilingual attention, they will be able to attend to Russian or Ukrainian tourists who require assistance.
According to the agency, there are no reports of tourists stranded in the destination, but only reports of delays and some rescheduled flights.
Last week, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that no country is going to be closed off from Mexico in the face of the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
