Demand for Regional Air Services from Ekaterinburg Growing
Ekaterinburg Koltsovo Airport has drawn up the preliminary results of the project implemented since 25 August 2011 jointly with the RusLine airline to develop regional air services between Ekaterinburg and a number of cities in Russia and Kazakhstan. During that time, 1792 passengers have been carried on 75 scheduled flight pairs on 10 airways. In coming days, Koltsovo is expecting to handle the 2000th passenger of the regional program; he or she will receive presents form the airport and the airline.
“It’s just over a month since the first flight of Embraer-120 airplanes took off at Ekaterinburg Airport to carry passengers on new airways,” commented Koltsovo Airport Commercial Director Sergey Dotsenko. “The project obviously has a good future, and despite having to solve a lot of unexpected problems during the first month, we are satisfied with the results. We would like to express our gratitude to the partner regional airports at the other ends — Perm, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Magnitogorsk, Omsk, Tyumen, Orenburg, Karagandy and Kostanay, which supported and took an active part in the program onset. And if in the beginning the passengers were wary, now most of the airplanes fly on these airways with a full load; that is evidence of a stable demand for the domestic routes that had been forgotten since the Soviet times.”
In early September, the average seat load factor was about 30 percent, growing toward the end of the month to over 50 percent in the mean, while flights to some destinations, such as Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Magnitogorsk and Orenburg, were 90–100 percent full.
On 6 October 2011, ticket sales for the winter period began. As a welcome bonus for passengers, a unique action “1 kilometre = 1 ruble” is in effect until December 2011, according to which the one-way fares (agency fees not included) from Ekaterinburg amount to: 300 rubles to Perm, 300 rubles to Tyumen, 400 rubles to Magnitogorsk, 730 rubles to Kazan, 730 rubles to Orenburg, 1300 rubles to Karagandy, 580 rubles to Kostanay, 1040 rubles to Nizhny Novgorod, and 860 rubles to Omsk. A passenger can book and make a trip at these prices until and including 20 December 2011.
Date modified:
06.10.2011