RusLine to Add Moscow – Ljubljana Link and Expand into China

Independent Russian carrier RusLine will next week inaugurate flights between Moscow and Ljubljana, a route currently served by Slovenian national carrier Adria Airways. The new flight from Moscow Domodedovo Airport will start on August 15 and will be operated on a twice weekly basis using a 50-seat Bombardier CRJ200. Adria currently offers flights to Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport with nine weekly frequencies, but is it currently undergoing a major business restructuring and is set to cut a number of routes and frequencies on others and it is not clear how this could impact its operations to the Russian capital.

This new route is just part of a major network expansion at RusLine facilitated by the arrival of additional aircraft. The airline has a growing presence in the Russian capital but also provides important domestic and regional links from Russia’s regions and has an expanding charter programme to Bulgarian Black Sea resort destinations and the Mediterranean from cities such as Krasnador, Nizhny Novogord, Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd and Voronezh.

RusLine is also expanding into the Chinese market introducing services to Manzhouli on the Russia- China border in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of the country. Manzhouli is China's busiest land port of entry, and is reported to be responsible for around 60 per cent of all imports from and exports to Eastern Europe.

Air services are currently restricted to domestic destinations, the largest being Beijing (Air China and Hainan Airlines) and the Inner Mongolia capital Hohhot (Air China and Tianjin Airlines) but over the next five weeks, RusLine will introduce links to three Russian cities. On August 16, a twice weekly Krasnoyarsk – Irkutsk – Manzhouli service will begin, while from September 16 a twice weekly link to Ulan-Ude will be added.

Schedule:

Moscow Domodedovo - Ljubljana
7R171 DME1200 – 1310LJU CRJ 15 15AUG11 -
7R172 LJU1400 – 1910DME CRJ 15 15AUG11 -

Krasnoyarsk – Irkutsk – Manzhouli
7R9725 KJA2100 – 2320IKT0030+1 – 0105+1NZH CRJ 14 16AUG11 -
7R9726 NZH0630 – 0905IKT1035 – 1105KJA CRJ 25 16AUG11 -

Ulan-Ude – Manzhouli
7R9757 UUD0515 – 0540NZH CRJ 25 16SEP11 -
7R9758 NZH0155 – 0415UUD CRJ 25 16SEP11 -