Donavia expands Istanbul services

Donavia, the regional subsidiary, which was formerly known as Aeroflot Don has announced expanded services in Istanbul Ataturk Airport. The airline already serves Istanbul from Rostov on Don and Sochi on a thrice-weekly basis, operated with B737 equipment. However this winter the carrier will expand services into Istanbul from Samara and Vladikavkaz (thrice-weekly) as well as Volgograd and and Anapa (twice-weekly), to be operated with B737-500 aircraft. IATA BSP data shows that nearly 1 million O+D passengers flew between Russia and Turkey between June 2009 and June 2010 with Turkish Airlines carrying 46% of this traffic.