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Russia Spent Millions To Fly Tourists To North Korea—Almost No One Showed Up
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![Photo of Ivan Khomenko]( "Photo of Ivan Khomenko")
Russia’s attempt to establish direct air travel between Moscow and Pyongyang has struggled to generate demand, with most flights operating largely without tourists despite receiving state subsidies.
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According to Russian media Kommersant on April 7, Russian airline Nordwind failed to meet its planned schedule for the route after being granted approval to operate flights to North Korea’s capital in 2025. The airline was expected to complete ten one-way flights between July and November but managed only five during that period.
A source close to the airline said that tourists on these flights were “practically non-existent,” Kommersant reported. When asked whether planes had empty seats, the source responded: “There are occupied ones.”
The same source noted that maintaining the route remains “categorically important for the development of relations between the countries,” adding that passengers have included “specialists in the fields of energy, IT, and others.”
Nordwind received approximately 40 million rubles in subsidies from Russia’s federal reserve fund, despite an initial allocation of over 120 million rubles for the program. Under the subsidy conditions, the airline was required to operate more flights than it ultimately delivered.
Industry sources estimate that the cost of a round-trip long-haul flight on aircraft such as the Boeing 777 or Airbus A330 exceeds 30 million rubles. According to the outlet, the subsidy provided was effectively sufficient to cover only one such flight. Early ticket prices reportedly started at around 44,000 rubles.
Nordwind initially deployed wide-body Boeing 777 aircraft with a capacity of around 440 passengers before switching to Airbus A330 aircraft configured for approximately 358 passengers. Despite regulatory approval for up to two flights per week, the airline opted to operate only one flight per month, citing the need to build stable demand.
According to Kommersant, most Russian tourists traveling to North Korea in 2025 used routes from Vladivostok operated by the North Korean national carrier Air Koryo.
The airline operates a fleet of nine Soviet- and Russian-built aircraft, with the newest around 11 years old and the oldest up to 44 years old. Tickets for these flights are typically available only through tour agencies.
Russian border data recorded nearly 10,000 trips by Russian citizens to North Korea in 2025, with roughly half classified as tourism. Around 4,000 tourists were transported by the Russian operator Vostok Intur.
Russia resumed direct commercial flights between Moscow and Pyongyang in July 2025, marking the first such air connection in decades. According to Russian state media, the route—operated by Nordwind with wide-body aircraft—was launched as part of broader efforts to expand cooperation between Moscow and North Korea.
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