Russian carrier Transaero Airlines has announced its plans to expand its European network after recently being named a designated carrier on certain routes between Russia and Italy following the liberalisation of the air service agreement between the two countries.
The independent operator will introduce flights from Moscow to Rome, Milan and Venice as well as from St Petersburg to Rome and Milan over the coming months. The airline will be using Vnukovo Airport as its terminus in the Russian capital as part of its revised network strategy in Moscow and a lesser reliance on Domodedovo Airport which is currently its main base in the city.
The Russian – Italian market is seeing steady growth in O&D demand, as the table below illustrates with demand growing by slightly less than a quarter in 2011:
|
ESTIMATED O&D DEMAND BETWEEN RUSSIA AND ITALY (bi-directional O&D traffic) |
||
|
Year |
Estimated O&D Traffic |
% Change on Previous Year |
|
2011 |
1,464,294 |
24.9 % |
|
2010 |
1,172,716 |
9.7 % |
|
2009 |
1,069,191 |
(-0.2) % |
|
2008 |
1,071,099 |
8.0 % |
|
2007 |
991,697 |
32.5 % |
|
2006 |
748,218 |
- |
There are currently just over 100 weekly flights between the two countries offering over 17,500 seats in each direction. These include links from four Russian airports – Ekaterinburg, Moscow Domodedovo, Moscow Sheremetyevo and St Petersburg to eleven destinations in Italy – Bergamo, Catania, Milan, Olbia, Palermo, Pisa, Rimini, Rome, Turin, Venice and Verona.
Russian flag carrier Aeroflot Russian Airlines is the largest operator between Russia and Italy with a 38.8 per cent share of weekly seat capacity, followed by Alitalia with 28.8 per cent, WindJet with 12.5 per cent and Rossiya Airlines with a 9.6 per cent share.
Transaero Airlines will begin its Italian network development at the end of June, inaugurating a five times weekly link from Moscow Vnukovo to Rome Leonardo da Vinci Fiumicino International Airport on June 27, 2012 (increasing to daily from September 24, 2012) followed by a twice weekly service to Venice from the Russian capital from June 28, 2012. A twice weekly service to Milan from Moscow will commence on June 30, 2012 and will double to a four times weekly schedule from September 25, 2012. The two new routes from Pulkovo International Airport in St Petersburg to Milan and Rome will commence on June 28, 2012 and will initially be operated on a twice weekly basis, with a third rotation due to be added by the end of September. All the flights will be performed with Boeing 737 equipment configured in a two-class arrangement.
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