China sees surge in flight bookings to Russia as visa-free policy nears implementation

(ECNS) — Flight enquiries from China to Russia have surged following President Vladimir Putin's announcement on Tuesday that a visa-free policy for Chinese citizens would take effect soon.

Data from travel platform Qunar shows that as of 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Moscow ranked among the top 10 global cities in search volume. The most active departure cities were Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chengdu. Searches for the Beijing–Moscow route jumped 3.4 times from the previous hour, while Chengdu rose 3.2 times. Routes from Shanghai and Shenzhen recorded increases of 1.1 times and 1.4 times, respectively, with Hangzhou and Chongqing both more than doubling.

Searches for flights to St. Petersburg also recorded notable growth. Qunar reported that Wuhan, Tianjin, Urumqi, Shanghai and Guangzhou were among the fastest-growing departure cities. Wuhan's searches rose 14-fold from the previous week, Tianjin 5-fold, and Urumqi 4.5-fold. Shanghai–St. Petersburg searches doubled within one hour and tripled week-on-week.

Data from Flight Master show that in October 2025, China–Russia round-trip flights reached 2,096 services, up 24.2% from 2024 and 6.1% from 2019. The busiest routes were Shanghai Pudong–Sheremetyevo (207 flights), Beijing Daxing–Sheremetyevo (169 flights) and Beijing Capital–Sheremetyevo (124 flights).

Russia's upcoming visa-free entry for Chinese citizens corresponds to China's earlier measure: from Sept. 15, 2025, to Sept. 14, 2026, it would grant visa-free entry to Russian citizens holding ordinary passports.

(By Evelyn)