RUSSIA: Pobeda pops-up in St Petersburg

Touching down in Novosibirsk on the 23 October launch of services from Moscow Vnukovo was the ubiquitous Pobeda 737-800. The Russian domestic operation will be served on a daily basis.

Another airport, another Pobeda 737-800. Perhaps more significantly, this route launch was in St Petersburg, and marked the entry of Aeroflot’s LCC into Russia’s second city. Daily connections from Ekaterinburg and Krasnodar were the inaugural services.

Pobeda, Aeroflot’s in-house LCC, has commenced its first routes into Russia’s second city – St Petersburg (LED). The two routes from Ekaterinburg (SVX) and Krasnodar (KRR) are both inbound services, with no aircraft stationed at Pulkovo yet. All four of the routes would have faced direct competition, had it not been for the demise of Transaero Airlines, which operated on the Moscow Vnukovo (VKO) to Novosibirsk (OVB) route until its AOC was recently revoked.