Koltsovo Connects Regions: Ekaterinburg Airport Transfer Program Offering New Routes for Russians and Kazakhstanis
The launch in August 2011 of RusLine’s new regional air services from Ekaterinburg Koltsovo Airport has provided the people from Russia and Kazakhstan with the opportunities to travel from one region to another directly rather than via the capital airports. Thus, for example, one can use Koltsovo as the transfer airport when travelling from Magnitogorsk to Omsk and Tyumen, from Perm to Kazan, Krasnodar, Omsk, Orenburg, Tyumen and Bishkek, as well as from Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Orenburg, Tyumen, Omsk, Kostanay and Karagandy to a number of popular destinations1. The timetable is aimed at providing transfer passengers with minimum connection times.
“The regional route network development is one priority strategy of Koltsovo Airport, the situation in aviation for the last twenty years has been dishabituating people from flying short distances as in the Soviet times,” commented Koltsovo Airport Commercial Director Sergey Dotsenko. “We see one of our tasks in assisting airlines in developing specifically regional routes and establishing convenient, time- and money-saving connections at Ekaterinburg Airport.”
The transfer journey has several benefits. First, the passenger checks the baggage in at the airport of departure and gets it at the destination, without the trouble of claiming and rechecking at the airport of transfer. Secondly, the airline guarantees taking the passenger to the destination even when the preceding flight is delayed and the passenger misses his/her connection. Besides, the aggregate trip time with transfer in Ekaterinburg is little longer than the direct travel time — and the passenger saves.
The flights with transfers in Ekaterinburg are operated with a 30-seat Brazil-made Embraer-120 regional airliner. At present, the airline leases four these planes from Ekaterinburg Airport. It is precisely at Koltsovo that the regional air service development program was worked out and launched with the main objective of restoring the lost links with this country’s cities and offering passengers an alternative for the previously inevitable connections in Moscow.
Just to remind you, the action “1 kilometre = 1 ruble” is in effect until 20 December. According to it, the fares of regional flights via Ekaterinburg range from 300 to 1300 rubles2 depending on the origin and destination. That offer unique in the world aviation history has been made as a welcome bonus for the first months of the air services by the RusLine airline and Ekaterinburg Koltsovo Airport, which subsidizes regional air services during the start-up period within the framework of the regional aviation development project.
Booking and purchasing: ticket.rusline.aero/ru/pricetable, www.agent.ru/ru/booking/choice, http://rasp.yandex.ru, or at Koltsovo Airport ticket offices, tel. 226-85-76, 226-81-62.
Date modified:
22.09.2011