RUSSIA: Ural Airlines To Start Sochi-Tashkent Flights From July 18, 2018.

Russian carrier Ural Airlines will launch new regular Sochi-Tashkent flights from July 18, the Russian company announced.

The flights will be carried out on Airbus A320 airplanes on Wednesdays. Return flights will be carried out on Thursdays.

The flight ticket will cost 10,661 Russian rubles ($168) including all taxes and fees.

Earlier it was reported that Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan agreed to increase number of flights between the two countries.

Uzbekistan and China announced in mid-June 2018 that that the countries may launch charter flights soon.

Ural Airlines ranks among top Russian airlines in terms of passenger traffic. At year-end 2017, it carried 8,000,474 passengers.

45 Airbus airliners (24 A320, 14 A321, and 7 A319) of the carrier serve more than 200 routes.

Ural Airlines is the owner of such international and national awards as Wings of Russia, Safety Leaders Awards, Best Russian Social Projects, National Geographic Traveler Awards, Time for Innovations, and others.

Ural Airlines is an airline based in Yekaterinburg, Russia, operates scheduled and chartered domestic and international flights out of Koltsovo International Airport. In 2012, the company transported 3.5 million passengers.

The airline was founded in 1943 as Sverdlovsk State Air Enterprises, and later became part of Aeroflot, the Soviet state airline, being in charge of Yekaterinburg Airport.

Following the split-up of Aeroflot, Ural Airlines became a joint stock company incorporated under the laws of the Russian Federation on 28 December 1993, and the airline business was separated from the airport.

In 2010, Ural Airlines retired all of its Antonov An-24s, Ilyushin Il-86s and Tupolev Tu-154B2s. The airline's Tupolev Tu-154M, in 164-seat two-class configuration, was retired on October 16, 2011.

Ural Airlines has 2262 employees. The technical base of the airline is one of the biggest and most modern in Russia. Its technical equipment and experienced engineers allow Ural Airlines to provide necessary services in-house. In 2012, the airline opened its training complex for pilots.

The system of training for Airbus A320 was 7.5 million euro. The complex included the construction works too, with 9 million euros. The airline's CEO says that pilot training now is not 4 days, but 4 hours. The airline also plans to buy the training complex for the Airbus A330-300.

In 2017, Skytrax gave Ural Airlines 3 stars, which made it the fourth airline with three stars in Russia and CIS after S7 Airlines, Uzbekistan Airlines and Air Moldova.

Currently, main hubs of Ural Airlines are Moscow-Domodedovo and Yekaterinburg. In plans of Ural Airlines is to increase its number of hubs, by developing hubs at Moscow-Sheremetyevo and Moscow-Zhukovsky.

Ural Airlines has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:

- Azerbaijan Airlines

- Czech Airlines (SkyTeam)

- S7 Airlines (Oneworld)

- Uzbekistan Airways

Ural Airlines also started considering updating its fleet with newer Airbus A320neo family or Boeing 737 Next Generation and is still considering purchasing Airbus A330. The airline also considered purchasing Irkut MC-21, however the plans were most likely withdrawn.

Lately, Ural Airlines announced the purchase of 2 Airbus A321neoLR, that will be delivered in 2019, with a possible replacement of older Airbus A321-200.

The airline moved up its plans to increase its fleet size from 43 to 50 in 2018, moving up its original plans to do so by 2020.

As of June 2018, the Ural Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft:

- Airbus A319-100: 7

- Airbus A320-200: 24

- Airbus A321-200: 14

- Total: 45

Tourism Observer

RUSSIA: Ural Airlines Earns Loyalty Awards Russia-2018

Ural Airlines won the Loyalty Awards Russia-2018 award in a For Effective Use of CRM in Loyalty Program nominated category.

The award honors the integration of CRM in the Wings Loyalty Program. Its participants get an opportunity to use bonuses when buying tickets for any destination with a discount of up to 100% of the tariff.

Ural Airlines ranks among top Russian airlines in terms of passenger traffic. At year-end 2017, it carried 8,000,474 passengers.

45 Airbus airliners (24 A320, 14 A321, and 7 A319) of the carrier serve more than 200 routes.

Ural Airlines is the owner of such international and national awards as Wings of Russia, Safety Leaders Awards, Best Russian Social Projects, National Geographic Traveler Awards, Time for Innovations, and others.

Ural Airlines is an airline based in Yekaterinburg, Russia, operates scheduled and chartered domestic and international flights out of Koltsovo International Airport. In 2012, the company transported 3.5 million passengers.

The airline was founded in 1943 as Sverdlovsk State Air Enterprises, and later became part of Aeroflot, the Soviet state airline, being in charge of Yekaterinburg Airport.

Following the split-up of Aeroflot, Ural Airlines became a joint stock company incorporated under the laws of the Russian Federation on 28 December 1993, and the airline business was separated from the airport.

In 2010, Ural Airlines retired all of its Antonov An-24s, Ilyushin Il-86s and Tupolev Tu-154B2s. The airline's Tupolev Tu-154M, in 164-seat two-class configuration, was retired on October 16, 2011.

Ural Airlines has 2262 employees. The technical base of the airline is one of the biggest and most modern in Russia. Its technical equipment and experienced engineers allow Ural Airlines to provide necessary services in-house. In 2012, the airline opened its training complex for pilots.

The system of training for Airbus A320 was 7.5 million euro. The complex included the construction works too, with 9 million euros. The airline's CEO says that pilot training now is not 4 days, but 4 hours. The airline also plans to buy the training complex for the Airbus A330-300.

In 2017, Skytrax gave Ural Airlines 3 stars, which made it the fourth airline with three stars in Russia and CIS after S7 Airlines, Uzbekistan Airlines and Air Moldova.

Currently, main hubs of Ural Airlines are Moscow-Domodedovo and Yekaterinburg. In plans of Ural Airlines is to increase its number of hubs, by developing hubs at Moscow-Sheremetyevo and Moscow-Zhukovsky.

Ural Airlines has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:

- Azerbaijan Airlines

- Czech Airlines (SkyTeam)

- S7 Airlines (Oneworld)

- Uzbekistan Airways

Ural Airlines also started considering updating its fleet with newer Airbus A320neo family or Boeing 737 Next Generation and is still considering purchasing Airbus A330. The airline also considered purchasing Irkut MC-21, however the plans were most likely withdrawn.

Lately, Ural Airlines announced the purchase of 2 Airbus A321neoLR, that will be delivered in 2019, with a possible replacement of older Airbus A321-200.

The airline moved up its plans to increase its fleet size from 43 to 50 in 2018, moving up its original plans to do so by 2020.

As of June 2018, the Ural Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft:

- Airbus A319-100: 7

- Airbus A320-200: 24

- Airbus A321-200: 14

- Total: 45


Tourism Observer

GERMANY: Germania Launches New Routes

Germania has commenced its first services to the French island of Corsica during the last seven days.

Weekly flights (Saturdays) from Dresden (DRS) and Nuremberg (NUE) were started to Bastia (BIA), the second busiest airport on the island after Ajaccio.

The 1,007-kilometre sector from the former airport will be flown by the airline’s 737-700s, while the service from the latter facility will be operated by a mix of Germania’s A320 family.

Both routes were launched on 19 May and neither faces any direct competition.

Germania, on 26 April, launched direct flights between Dresden (DRS) and St. Petersburg (LED).

The capital city of the state of Saxony became a new destination in the Russian airport’s route network and the seventh German city with direct scheduled service.

The LCC operates the city pair twice-weekly with its 737-700 fleet, leaving from the German city on Thursdays and Sundays and the return flights departing Russia on Fridays and Mondays.

In addition to Dresden, St. Petersburg offers direct connections to such German cities as Berlin Schonefeld and Tegel airports by Rossiya Airlines and S7 Airlines respectively.

Hamburg and Dusseldorf by Rossiya, Munich by Rossiya and Lufthansa.

Frankfurt by Lufthansa and Ural Airlines and Cologne Bonn by Pobeda. There is no direct competition on this sector.

Germania now serves the Vienna (VIE) to Rostock (RLG) route twice-weekly (Fridays and Sundays) from 26 May.

The flights, operated by an A319, depart from Rostock at 11:50 and land in Vienna at 13:20, and leave the Austrian capital at 14:05 and arrive back in the Hanseatic city at 15:35.

We are pleased to welcome a new airline at Vienna Airport, namely Germania.

The new route to Rostock makes it even easier for passengers to reach the northern part of Germany, says Julian Jager, Member of the Management Board of Vienna Airport.

The route faces no direct competition. The day before, the airline began weekly (Thursdays) rotations between Hamburg (HAM) and Varna (VAR).

Flown by Germania’s A319 fleet, the city pair will encounter resistance from incumbent SunExpress Germany, which also flies the route on a weekly basis.

The last of the trio of new routes commenced by the airline on 23 May was the addition of another route from its recently opened Palma de Mallorca (PMI) base.

Germania added a twice-weekly (Tuesdays and Fridays) service to Montpellier (MPL) on 23 May. Operated by the carrier’s 737-700 fleet, the 459-kilometre sector will face no direct competition.

Germania has commenced two new routes from Germany this week. The airline began weekly (Fridays) operations from Düsseldorf (DUS) to Gazipasa-Alanya (GZP) in Turkey.

The 2,617-kilometre sector will be flown by Germania’s A319 fleet. By contrast, its twice-weekly (Mondays and Thursdays) operation from Nuremberg (NUE) to Athens (ATH), will be flown on its 737-700s. Neither route faces any direct competition.

Germania has based a second aircraft at Berlin Schonefeld (SXF), and is using the fresh capacity to re-start weekly services (Fridays) to Sharm El Sheikh (SSH), thereby reviving a route between the German capital and the Red Sea resort that has not been available for four-and-a-half years.

The following day the carrier also began services to Fuerteventura (FUE), a route that will operate on a twice-weekly basis (Tuesdays and Saturdays).

Unlike the Egyptian sector, the Spanish city pair will see direct competition from Ryanair (twice-weekly) and Condor (weekly).

Both routes will be flown by the carrier’s 737-700 fleet. Additional new features in Germania’s winter flight schedule from Schönefeld include increased capacity to Hurghada and a new route to Gran Canaria which launches next week.

The airline is committed to a policy for growth at this base, as well as Berlin Tegel.

Germania will achieve 400% growth in Berlin, commented Clauspeter Schwarz, Germania’s COO. This is our response to market changes and a greater presence in the capital.

Engelbert Lütke Daldrup, CEO of Berlin Brandenburg said: We are very pleased with the increased commitment of Germania to Berlin.

The wider range of flight offerings, the development of its bases at our two locations, as well as the maintenance operations at Schonefeld make the airline a key partner for us.”


Tourism Observer

RUSSIA: NordStar Airlines Passes IATA Operational Safety Audit

Russia’s NordStar Airlines has successfully undergone an IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) confirming its compliance with more than 1,000 internationally approved aviation safety standards, the carrier reports.

NordStar’s IOSA certificate is valid through August 2018.

Annual audit is required to renew the approval.

Successful completion of the safety checks makes the airline eligible for joining IATA.

However, in its official statement NordStar gave no notion of its intention to do so.

Eleven Russian airlines are currently members of the international association.

Theser are Aeroflot and its subsidiary Rossiya Airlines, Nordavia, Nordwind Airlines, Pegas Fly, S7 Airlines, Ural Airlines, UTair Aviation, Vim Airlines, and also two cargo carriers: Volga-Dnepr and its subsidiary AirBridgeCargo.

NordStar Airlines, part of the Russian mining and smelting corporation MMC Norilsk Nickel, is Russia’s 15th carrier by passenger traffic.

Between January and July 2017 it carried 783,800 passengers, up 9.9% on the same period last year.

Its seat load factor increased 5 percentage points to 77.5%.

The airline sees its primary mission in providing air services between Krasnoyarsk Region in Siberia and major cities elsewhere in Russia.

The airline operates a fleet of five ATR 42-500 regional turboprops, a Boeing 737-300, and nine 737-800s.




Tourism Observer

RUSSIA: Ural Airlines Grew By 19% In August Alone

Ural Airlines, Russia’s fourth largest passenger carrier, saw its traffic grow 19% year-on-year in August.

The Yekaterinburg-based operator served more than 966,100 passengers.

The frequency of the airline’s flights increased to 6,010, up 18% on the same month last year. Out of this number, 3,721 flights were domestic; a further 889 were operated within the CIS, and the remaining 1,400 to further abroad.

Ural Airlines reports that since the beginning of the year, its traffic has grown 23% year-on-year to 5.223 million passengers.

The number of flights rose 16% to 36,092 (21,895 domestic, 6,616 within CIS, and 7,581 to further abroad).

The growth rate was slightly higher in the first six months of the year, at 25%.

The airline’s traffic grew faster in August than the industry average. According to the Federal Air Transport Agency (FATA), Russian carriers’ overall passenger traffic increased 15% last month, to 11.8 million.

In January-August, the country’s airlines transported 70.1 million passengers (up 19.9 year-on-year).

FATA has also published preliminary statistics on the top three Russian carriers’ performance in August.

Flag carrier Aeroflot served 3.2 million passengers (+15.4%); its subsidiary Rossiya Airlines, 1.4 million (+26%). S7 Airlines, a subsidiary of S7 Group, carried 1.1 million passengers (+1.7%). Its sister carrier, Globus Airlines, demonstrated a faster growth.

The difference is apparently explained by the group’s current strategy and its flexible approach to fleet management.



Tourism Observer

MOLDOVA: Chisinau Airport Passenger Traffic Grew 25 per cent Last Year

Moldova’s increasingly popular Chisinau main gateway airport is enjoying a much-needed renovation boost, despite fears of alleged corrupt ownership practices at the airport, which is being managed under a controversial 49-year government concession contract.

The substantial renovation work follows on from some significant performance improvements at the airport over the last five years, so that 15 carriers now operate scheduled services from Chisinau airport (IATA code: KIV) to 38 destinations in 17 countries.

Six new carriers were attracted during 2015 and early 2016: LOT Polish Airlines, Ural Airlines (Russia), VIM Airlines (Russia), Volotea (Spain), Aegean Airlines (Greece), and Fly One (Moldova).

Newly introduced destinations include Parma, Florence, Brussels, and Russia's Voronezh. Frequencies were increased on several existing routes.

Moldova is a country of modest means, and whilst it is currently on the cusp of both the pro-Russia and pro-EU development opportunities, the nation is especially interested in the fortunes of its hard-currency-earning aviation enterprise – and developing Chisinau airport is viewed as a top priority.

Economically, the country has not been doing particularly well of late: it ranks 131st in the world by purchasing power parity, and among all the post-Soviet states, only Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan fare worse.

Hence the government's keen interest in the future of the country's main air gateway, which saw passenger numbers double from 1.04 million in 2011 to 2.22 million in 2015.

One particular indication of that growing potential is Hungarian carrier Wizz Air’s plan to start using it as its base in the spring of 2017.

Against this positive backdrop, and somewhat controversially, the airport is operated by Avia Invest, a Russian-controlled company which, in November 2013, was handed ‘ownership’ of the airport in an exclusive 49-year concession.

According to the airport's 2014 corporate statement, Avia Invest was initially co-founded by Russia's Kolomna Plant, which manufacturers railway rolling stock and is part of locomotive manufacturer Transmashholding.

The other co-founder was Khabarovsk airport, also located in Russia.

It was later reported that Kolomna Plant had ceded its share in Avia Invest, and that Khabarovsk airport's share in the company had been cut from 50 to five per cent.

The new proprietor of 95 per cent of the shares in Avia Invest is Russian firm Komaksavia, owned by British entity TB Team Management LLP and registered at the same address as businessman Konstantin Basyuk Komaks’ managing company, the same Komaks which runs Russia’s Khabarovsk airport.

The convoluted ownership of Avia Invest has prompted Moldovan media outlets to describe the concession deal as highly suspicious, and a number of local politicians and state officials have been calling for the contract to be cancelled or reviewed.

Critics include Maia Sandu, a pro-European candidate at the latest presidential election, who insists that the concession agreement is in breach of the law, going on to describe it as part of “the fraud of the century” (also pointing the finger at an allegedly illegal withdrawal of $1 billion from the Moldovan banking system).

Sandu says these are part of a “shady deal” about which the current government is refusing to provide detailed information.

Avia Invest’s managers dismiss all these claims as populism: “The airport's concession deal was the right and necessary step.

In all the 24 years of the country's independence, only around $10-12 million had been invested in the development of this strategic facility, whereas Avia Invest, in just under two years, has already invested four times more,” says an official statement.

Moldovan journalists remain sceptical as to the agreement's benefits to the country, though. They point to the fact that Avia Invest's annual financial performance figures, including its revenues and taxes paid to the state, are not available on the company’s website.

The only information accessible is in the form of press releases, which do not provide a full and clear understanding of the airport's financial state and the sums invested to date.

The airport's passenger traffic in 2015 grew 25 per cent year-on-year and 68 per cent up on 2013.

The improvements are attributable, it is said, from Moldova having joined the Single European Sky initiative in 2012, and by the lifting of the short-visit EU visa requirement for Moldovan citizens in 2014.

Avia Invest insists that the ongoing project to modernise and develop Chisinau is already appreciated by passengers.

The airport's throughput capacity has been increased from 420 to 750 passengers per hour, the check-in area has been expanded two-fold to 1,100 square metres – and there are now 18 check-in counters and six passport control desks, served by 12 border guards.

A new baggage processing system has been installed, as well as ultramodern lighting and improved air conditioning.

As part of the modernisation, the airside area has been expanded by 900 square metres and fully renovated. “We increased the number of boarding gates and security checkpoints, which additionally improved the airport's throughput capacity,” says Avia Invest, which adds that it has also fully overhauled all the networks and systems supporting the terminal operation.

The most spacious multi-storied car park in the country, a four-level facility for 800 vehicles, has been erected opposite the airport terminal.

Avia Invest has also been working to improve the airfield infrastructure, a project which embraces the comprehensive renovation of more than 500,000 square metres of airfield area, including the single 3,590 m by 45 m runway, as well as taxiways and apron areas.

Avia Invest believes the renovation and development scheme, in combination with an effective new strategy for attracting additional airlines, are helping the airport to start offering new routes and increase the frequencies of existing services.

RUSSIA: Russian Federation Refuses Pobeda Airlines To Fly To Turin

“The Interdepartmental Commission at the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation has refused "Pobeda" to perform regular flights to Turin”, - according to the published order of the Federal Air Transport Agency on Tuesday.

The carrier requested admittance of flights on this destination 7 times a week. The airline companies "Siberia" (S7 group) and "Ural Airlines" also claimed to this slot. As a result, according to the order, the first company received 5 frequencies per week, the second one - 2.

It was reported earlier, that "Pobeda" gained admission to 7 frequencies per week to another Italian city - Pisa. Flights on this route the company plans to open in the winter schedule 2016/2017. Currently, "Pobeda" performs flights to Milan.

"Pobeda" is a low cost carrier of "Aeroflot" group. Flights are performed by 12 Boeing-737-800 to 58 destination, including 8 international: to several cities in Germany, Spain, Italy, Slovakia, Montenegro and Cyprus.

Ural Airlines

Ural Airlines is an airline based in Yekaterinburg, Russia, operates scheduled and chartered domestic and international flights out of Koltsovo International Airport. In 2012, the company transported 3.5 million passengers. During its history the company has won the National Aviation Award "Wings of Russia" 14 times.

The airline was founded in 1943 as Sverdlovsk State Air Enterprises, and later became part of Aeroflot, the Soviet state airline, being in charge of Yekaterinburg Airport. Following the split-up of Aeroflot, Ural Airlines became a joint stock company incorporated under the laws of the Russian Federation on 28 December 1993, and the airline business was separated from the airport. Today, the company is owned by Ural Wings (65.77%) and Ural Transport Bank (14.67%) and has 1,390 employees

Airline's Performance

Airbus A319 of Ural Airlines taxiing at Domodedovo International Airport.
The first million passengers in a year was transported in 2006. Since that time the airline has grown and the passenger number has also increased. During 2013, the airline transported 4.419 million passengers. In numbers of passengers transported, the airline came in 6th place in Russia that year.

Results of the passenger transportation since 2007 till today:

2014 — 5,1 million [4] (+ 17%);
2013 — 4,419 million [3] (+ 25%);
2012 — 3,525 million[5] (+ 40%);
2011 — 2,513 million [6] (+ 40%);
2010 — 1,792 million [6] (+ 12%);
2009 — 1,497 million (+ 3%);
2008 — 1,450 million (+ 19%);
2007 — 1,217 million;

Ural Airlines contains 2262 employees. The technical base of the airline is one of the biggest and one of the modern in Russia. The technical equipment and the experience of the engineers working in that airline allows to make all the demanding processes of the airline by itself.

In 2012, the airline had opened its training complex for the pilots. The system of training for Airbus A320 was 7.5 million euro. The complex included the construction works too, with 9 million euros.

As the airline's CEO, he says that the training for the pilots now is not 4 days, but 4 hours. The airline also palns to buy the training complex for the long-haul aircraft, which is Airbus A330-300, following the information of August 2014.

Ural Airlines is one of biggest Russia's airlines, and following the 2014, it has got the sixth place, in 2013, Ural Airlines has transported 4 500 000 passengers and compared to 2012, the passenger value has increased by 25%.

In 2013, the airline had become the winner in "Wings of Russia" as the Russia's best airline 11th time and the winner in Russia's best domestic airline 4th time.

Codeshare agreements
Ural Airlines has codeshare agreements with the following airlines (as of April 2015):

- Angara Airlines
- Czech Airlines (SkyTeam)
- S7 Airlines (Oneworld)

TURKEY: Russia Has Lifted Ban On Flights To Turkey

Russia has opened up flights to Turkey’s southern resort of Antalya following a ban imposed in the wake of the shooting down of a Russian warplane in November, Russian media reported on March 24.

The Russian civil aviation authority, Rosaviation, has given the go-ahead for Ural Airlines to fly to Antalya, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency said.

Ural Airlines will fly seven times a week from Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan to Antalya - favorite Turkish destination for Russians.

The Kremlin banned the sale of tour packages and charter flights to Turkey after a Russian jet was downed by a Turkish F-16 over the Turkey-Syria border for repeatedly violating Turkish airspace on Nov. 24.

KYRGYZSTAN: Ural Airlines Launches New Tyumen To Osh Route 25

Ural Airlines launched a new flight to Kyrgyzstan that connects Tyumen and Osh, - reports the TASS information agency referring to the press-service of the carrier.

Flights started operating from September on comfortable passenger aircraft Airbus.

Duration of flight will be three hours. Departure from Osh will be at 3.30 with arrival in Tyumen at 5.50.

Return flight will be at 6.50 and arrive in Osh at 10.35. The schedule is provided in local time.

Ural Airlines is one of the leading Russian air-carriers; its serves more than 200 directions.

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.

RUSSIA: Russian Market For Changes,Aeroflot To Absorb Transaero Airlines

Cakes and smiles: There’s some appearance of normality in the way that Russia’s air transport business has continued to function and launch important new routes in the past year, albeit miles behind its economic potential. Transaero Airlines’ flurry of new destinations includes: St Petersburg to Shanghai in June, Moscow Vnukovo to Delhi in February, and Moscow Domodedovo to Malta in April, while Aeroflot’s fast-growing low cost unit, Pobeda, which has generated near-30% growth at Moscow Vnukovo this year, launched Sochi/Adler to Kazan, amongst many other new routes, in May.

The recent announcement that Russia’s (majority) state-owned carrier Aeroflot was going to take over the country’s second biggest carrier, Transaero Airlines, will have a significant impact on competition in the Russian market. Based on latest passenger figures from the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) the two carriers accounted for 43% of passenger movements on Russian carriers in the first seven months of 2015. Add in the figures for Rossiya Airlines, ORENAIR, Pobeda, Donavia and Aurora, all of which are either fully-owned or majority-owned by Aeroflot, and the market share climbs to over 57%.

Passenger numbers on Russian airlines are up 1.1% in the first seven months of this year from 51.3 million to 51.8 million. While UTair and Nordwind Airlines have seen significant drops in demand, Aeroflot’s LCC Pobeda has made an impressive start, already ranked ninth among the nation’s airlines. Another fast-growing airline is Azur Air (formerly known as Katekavia – IATA code ZF), which has been around for 20 years but has grown its scheduled services significantly in recent times thanks to the acquisition of several 757s and 767s from UTair.
Pobeda driving growth at Moscow Vnukovo

Government statistics for airport traffic in the first six months of 2015 shows a mixed picture. Of the top 15 airports 11 are showing a drop in traffic compared to the first half of 2014, with Rostov-on-Don seeing the biggest drop of almost 17%. The rapid growth of Aeroflot’s in-house LCC Pobeda at Moscow Vnukovo has helped the airport move past St Petersburg into third place among Russian airports. Sochi/Adler is apparently still benefitting from its raised profile and new infrastructure after hosting last year’s winter Olympics.

The fastest-growing airport according to these statistics is Simferopol, in the disputed region of Crimea. Since February 2014 the airport has been under the control of Russian forces and the airport now handles flights almost exclusively to and from Russia. As a result, passenger numbers at Russian airports (including Simferopol) are up 0.5% in the first half of 2015. If Simferopol is not included, demand across Russia’s other airports is down 1.3%.

An Istanbul-style mega-hub for Moscow? These images are from a magazine produced in Russia in 1992 by the anna.aero publisher, Paul Hogan, who was involved in British Airways’ plans for “Air Russia” – a proposed Helsinki-style hub at Moscow Domodedovo. Hogan believes the potential for a Moscow mega-hub as good as Istanbul persists, and this was the subject of his presentation at the CEE Aviation conference in Budapest 3 September.

China and Turkey capacity still growing
Using OAG schedule data (which still considers Simferopol in Ukraine) a comparison has been made for the leading country markets from Russian airports in September 2015 and compared with September 2013. On this basis, not surprisingly, Ukraine has become the leading international country market with seat capacity doubling in two years. However, if we were to exclude flights to Simferopol (which account for 80% of the seat capacity), Ukraine would become only the tenth biggest market, with capacity down 60%.

Again comparing international services between September 2013 and September 2015 reveals that among western European airlines, Germany’s two leading carriers have made significant reductions in seat capacity, with airberlin down 40% and Lufthansa down 50%. In the last week, Lufthansa has suspended three Russian routes; from Frankfurt to Moscow Vnukovo, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. airberlin has axed its Berlin Tegel-St Petersburg connection and its Munich-Moscow Domodedovo service.
Moscow’s potential as a mega-hub explored

Last week anna.aero’s publisher, Paul Hogan, gave a presentation at the CEE Aviation Conference in Budapest. With the title “How good would it be for Russia’s air transport if everything was normal?” You can download his 20-slide presentation below.

TAV-operated Tbilisi Airport serving the capital of Georgia (with which Russia was at war in 2008) celebrated the launch of Aeroflot’s new daily service from Moscow Sheremetyevo last October. Despite the current crisis, Ukrainian traffic is also up substantially, although the picture is complicated as many agencies and groups – such as OAG – define Crimea’s growing traffic base as part of Ukraine.