Aviation News

New Routes and Flights

Aeroflot plans to launch direct flights to Hurgada and Sharm el Sheikh, which will help stimulate the demand for these resorts among the FIT segment.

Transaero started direct flights from Moscow to Tunisia, from St-Petersburg to Phuket (Thailand) and increased the frequency of flights to Vienna, through a code-sharing agreement with Austria Airlines. Also Transaero will launch a new charter flight from Moscow to Cancun, (Mexico) and from St-Petersburg to Cyprus and Egypt.

S7 launched over 10 new routes, including a Krasnoyarsk - Bangkok flight. The airline resumed Irkutsk - Beijing flights and Moscow - Varna flights, making them all-year-round. Ural Airlines opened a direct flight from Samara to Dubai, continued the Yekaterinburg - Munich route and increased flights to Dubai from Yekaterinburg.

Alitalia will start flying from Moscow to Torino for the period of December 2009 - March 2010. Pac Group increased by 25% their charter flights and Vim Avia will start flying to Torino, Bergamo and Verona from Yekaterinburg.

And finally, Turkish Airlines launched another flight from Moscow to Istanbul, increasing the frequency to 3 flights a day from Moscow to Istanbul and a daily flight to Antalya.

 

 

Aeroflot's half-year net profit down 80% to $14 million

Russia's flagship carrier Aeroflot has announced its net profit declined by 80%, year-on-year, from Jan-June 2009 to $14.1 million. The reasons for this, was the decline in consumer purchasing power and reduced business activity. Aeroflot's revenues fell by 32% during the first half of 2009 to $1.5 billion.

Aeroflot, which flies to 96 destinations in 49 countries, accounts for over 42% of Russia's international air traffic and 12% of domestic flights. In 2008, the airline itself carried 9.3 million passengers, and 11.6 million together with its affiliates. Over the last 4 years, Aeroflot has experienced exception high growth rates, as the no. of people flying from Russia was increased on average by 20% per year, thus the decrease is not as drastic as it might appear.