One-way ticket sales from Russia up 27% on Tuesday

The number of one-way ticket sales from Russia increased 27% on Tuesday after 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.

The mobilization of men to fight in Ukraine has resulted in thousands of fighting-age men fleeing Russia to avoid the 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.

The report shows the share of one-way tickets issued rose to 73% the week of the announcement, compared to 47% the previous week.

Olivier Ponti, ForwardKeys' vice president of insights, said these numbers are quite remarkable and correlate with reports at the time of a sudden increase in ticket sales.

Sixty percent of tickets purchased the week of the announcement had a departure date within 15 days, up from 45% compared to the week prior to the announcement. 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 ending 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.