Demand for seats on private jets has soared in Moscow after Vladimir Putin ordered the first mobilization since World War Two and wealthy Russians are looking for a way out of the country amid reports that authorities plan to close borders to men of conscription age.
Those interested are said to go mainly to Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan, which allow Russians to enter without visas.
And even, they are paying from 22,000 to 28,000 euros for a seat on a private plane, while the price to rent an eight-seater plane goes up to 150 thousand euros, which is many times more more expensive than normal fare.
“The situation is absolutely crazy at the moment,” said Yevgeny Bikov, director of an intermediary company, Your Charter.
“We used to get 50 requests a day; now it is about 5,000”.
The Kremlin’s decision to announce a partial mobilization has led to a rush among military-age men to leave the country, triggering a new, perhaps unprecedented brain drain.
As a result, miles of traffic jams have been created at Russia’s border crossings, while most one-way commercial airline tickets have been sold out for the next few days.
FlightWay, which offers private jet flights, said it was experiencing an increase in requests for one-way flights to Armenia, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Dubai.
“The demand has increased by 50 times”, Eduard Simonov, the head of the company, is quoted as saying.
He said the availability of aircraft for lease was very limited after the EU and the UK imposed sanctions on Russia shortly after the start of the conflict that prohibited the leasing or provision of aircraft for use in Russia.
“All European private jet firms have left the market. Now there is more demand than supply and prices are high compared to six months ago,” said Simonov.