Business Watch
Airlines & Airports (70)
The international airport of Sheremetyevo has summarized the May holiday flight program, which is traditionally a period of intense streams of air-passengers to and from vacation places. According to preliminary results, from April 25 till May 9 of 2012 Sheremetyevo airport served 1 million 040 thousand passengers, which is 14.2% more than the figure of the last year.
The passenger traffic on international airlines increased during the period of the May vacation by 15.2% and constituted 689.5 thousand people, on internal airlines it increased by 12.2% to 350.4 thousand passengers.
Last month, the Russian flag carrier Aeroflot further expanded its hub at Moscow Sheremyetevo (SVO), as it launched two EU-bound routes. On 26 March, the airline inaugurated four weekly services to Kraków (KRK), making the Polish city the seventh destination it serves with Sukhoi Superjet 100s outside of Russia.
Jacek Majchrowski, the Mayor of Kraków, said: “Kraków has lobbied for this service for years, and we expect the service to foster cultural and business links between the cities. It also brings EURO 2012 closer to Moscow, and we hope to hear more Russian on the high street.”
A day later, daily services were launched to Stuttgart, Aeroflot’s eighth German destination. The 2,000-kilometre route to Stuttgart (STR) is offered with A320s. Speaking during the launch in Stuttgart, Konstantin Pilipenko, Aeroflot’s Country Manager in Germany, commented: “The new route connects two economically important areas, offering convenient options for business, leisure and VFR traffic alike. Looking at booking patterns to date, we are confident that the project will succeed.”
Krakow was last connected with Moscow by LOT in 1990, while Aeroflot’s Stuttgart route faces indirect competition from germanwings’ four weekly flights to Moscow Vnukovo.
(Anna Aero)
Air China has opened a Beijing-Hailar-Chita route. The flights, CA917/8, are operated with B737-300 on Wednesday and Friday, offering more travel options to the market.
The city of Chita is the administrative center of Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia and an important hub of the Trans-Siberian Railway and roads. To its west is Ulan-Ude and to its east Svobodny. It provides easy access to China's Manzhouli. Around the city are rich deposits of tin, aluminum, gold, copper, molybdenum, fluorspar, iron ore and coal as well as large stretches of forests and hydraulic resources, which contribute to Chita's position as one of eastern Siberia's important industrial centers.
Hailar, in Inner Mongolia is a political, cultural and tourism centre.
The only other international scheduled flight operated from Chita is to Manchuria.
Vladivostok Air Deputy General Director Dmitry Tyshchuk has announced that the airline plans to resume its seasonal summer service between Anchorage, Alaska, and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Russia, in July, 2012. During this first season, the service will operate once per week from mid-July until mid-September. It is hoped a successful 2012 season will justify expansion of the service in 2013.