RUSSIA: Pobeda Goes To Pulkovo Airport

Aeroflot low-cost subsidiary Pobeda Airline plans to launch three new international routes from St. Petersburg Pulkovo Airport in October, the airport said.

The carrier starts 3X-weekly Milan Bergamo service Oct. 11; 4X-weekly London Stansted service Oct. 12; and daily Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen service Oct. 28.

The Moscow Vnukovo-based airline will compete on the St. Petersburg-London route with another Aeroflot subsidiary, Rossiya Airlines, which operates flights to Gatwick, and British Airways, flying to Heathrow.

On the Istanbul route, Pobeda will compete with Rossiya and Turkish Airlines, which are connecting Pulkovo with Istanbul Atatürk Airport.

Pobeda launched flights from Pulkovo in October 2015.

During the first seven months of 2018, the airline carried 577,000 passengers from Pulkovo, up 136% year-over-year (YOY).

The airline’s St. Petersburg network included 11 domestic and five international destinations in the IATA 2018 summer season.

Moscow Domodedovo-based S7 Airlines, the second biggest carrier in Russia after Aeroflot Group, also boosts a network from St. Petersburg.


Tourism Observer

UAE: Flydubai To Commence Direct Flights To Helsinki From 11 October 2018

Flydubai has announced the launch of direct flights to Helsinki.

The daily service will start from 11 October 2018. Flydubai becomes the first airline to offer a year-round service between Dubai and Helsinki.

The carrier will operate the new route on its brand-new Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft with flat-bed in Business Class and enhanced Economy Class offering.

The Helsinki route will be code shared with Emirates as part of the Emirates’ and Flydubai’s partnership.

Dubai airlines reveal strong passenger numbers for first six months of tie-up.

Emirates and flydubai revealed on Monday strong passenger numbers for the first six months of their partnership.

The first codeshare flights began at the end of October and between November 2017 and this March, over 400,000 passengers have taken advantage of the partnership and more than 250,000 passengers have already planned their trip for the year ahead, a statement said.

The partnership initially began with codeshare flights to 29 cities, and this has since expanded to meet growing demand.

Emirates currently flies to 141 passenger destinations.

Last year, the airline launched new passenger routes to Newark via Athens, Zagreb and Phnom Penh, and later this year, Emirates will begin services to London Stansted and Santiago de Chile.

flydubai currently flies to a total of 97 destinations, 80 of which are not served by Emirates, bringing the total combined network offering to 206 unique destinations.

Both Dubai-based airlines said they will continue to offer customers greater choice and flexibility across their networks, with codeshares to more than 90 destinations today.

New codeshare flights recently launched include Krakow, Dubrovnik and Kinshasa with more destinations expected in the coming months such as Catania from June 13, Thessaloniki from June 15 and Helsinki from October 11.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saaed Al Maktoum, chairman and CEO of Emirates Group and chairman of flydubai, said: We’re really pleased with how well the Emirates and flydubai partnership is going – based on bookings and the feedback from our customers and trade partners.

We have seen a strong demand for travel on combined Emirates-flydubai itineraries from Europe and the United States to the Middle East and West Asian destinations.


Tourism Observer

TURKEY: Pegasus Airlines of Turkey Turns Ten

Pegasus Airlines, the independent Turkish carrier which started life as a charter subsidiary controlled by Aer Lingus, will celebrate 10 years of flying scheduled flights on 1 November 2015.

Pegasus currently flies to over 100 destinations in 40 countries including six times a week between London Gatwick and Istanbul, which started earlier this year, twice daily between London Stansted and Istanbul and three times a week to Izmir.

Pegasus have also recently added international flights to Baghdad, Erbil, Kutaisi, Nice, Oslo, Eilat (Ovda Airport) and domestic flights to Kars, Kastamonu and Ordu.