Aviation News

On March 15, Royal Air Morocco launched regular flights from Moscow to Casablanca. The flight is operated 3 times a week. 40,000 Russians visited Morocco last year, but the new flight is expected to increase this. The aim is to attract 350,000 Russians by 2014 according to the Moroccan Tourism Authority. The new flight comes in line with the plans of many leading Russian tour operators to increase their sales of Morocco: Neva starts developing tours to this destination from St-Petersburg, Coral Travel plans to increase sales by 30% to Morocco and Lanta Tour Voyage will starts flying to Agadir.

In 2010, the total passenger traffic by Russian airlines increased by 26% compared to 2009. The 5 leading Russian airlines are: Aeroflot, Transaero, S7, UTair and Rossiya Airlines, according to RosAviation. They accounted for 52% of all passenger traffic transported in 2010. The fastest growing airlines in 2010 were Nord Wind (the airline of Pegas Touristik), Orenburg Airlines and Transaero.

New regular flights from Moscow to Brno in the Czech Republic were launched in March 2011. Central Connect Airlines started flying 3 times a week from Domodedovo Airport starting from March 4th, and Yakutia airlines 3 times a week from Vnukovo. However, market experts are worried that 6 flights a week may be excessive for this destination, which normally serves as a departure point for trips to Prague.

As of June 5, S7 Airlines will start regular weekly flight to Split in Croatia. Another carrier to the region for summer 2011 will be Aeroflot, and possibly also Transaero, who flew there last year.

SAS Scandinavian Airlines launched a new route between Moscow and Oslo from March 27th. The flight will be operated 4 times a week by Boeing 737. At the moment SAS already flies from Moscow and St-Petersburg to Stockholm and Copenhagen.

In December 2010, Air Astana opened a regular flight from St-Petersburg to Almaty in Kazakhstan. The flight is operated from Pulkovo Airport in St-Petersburg twice a week by Airbus 320. A third weekly flight on the same route is planned in the near future. Air Astana has also signed a code share agreement with Etihad Airways as of March 2011. As a result, there will be 4 flights per week to Abu Dhabi from Almaty and Astana operated by Etihad, and 15 flights a week by Air Astana.

As of March 4, Arkia Israel Airlines will commence regular flights to Moscow from Tel Aviv, on a twice a week frequency basis. This will make it the 3rd Israeli carrier on this route, which is already served by El Al and Israir, and 6th airline carrier, as the following Russian airlines also fly this route including: Transaro, Aeroflot and Rossiya Airlines. Over the last 5 years the air traffic between Moscow and Tel Aviv increased by 70%.