Russia and Spain Negotiate The Increase Of Scheduled Flights Between The Countries

On June 1st – 2nd the aviation authorities of Spain and Russia will negotiate a range of issues regarding scheduled and charter air traffic between the two countries. Gennadyi Loschenov, General Director Deputy of Civil Aviation National Policy Department of the Ministry of Transport, said: ‘both scheduled and charter flights will be on the agenda of the meetings. In particular, we plan to offer to increase a number of national airlines operating scheduled flights to Spain. At the moment airline companies that realize charter flights to Spain wish to operate scheduled flights to the destination’. ‘Many large airline companies, including VIM-avia, have such ambitions’, confirmed Commercial Director of VIM-avia, Mikhail Gribkov. At present scheduled flights from Russia to Spain are operated only by Aeroflot and Iberia, with Aeroflot flying to two Spanish destinations – Madrid and Barcelona. Therefore, while Russians seek to increase a number of airline companies realizing scheduled flights, the Spanish interests are inclined towards the extension of the geography of flights within Russia, in particular to fly to St. Petersburg and the Urals. Furthermore, Russian travel market players believe the increase of scheduled flights to Spain will make a positive impact on the travel market. Thus, Alevtina Filosofova, Sales Director of CAPITAL TOUR, stated as follows: ‘there is a shortage of scheduled flights to Barcelona. The main share of sales in CAPITAL TOUR is middle and high budget tours; therefore, our clients prefer comfort on board. The majority of tourists would prefer to fly by scheduled flights, despite the fact that the cheapest scheduled flight is on average $100 –150 more expensive than a charter flight’.