S7 Airlines to Fly to Valencia

Russian carrier S7 Airlines has announced it will launch flights from the Russian capital to Valencia next year, its third destination in Spain. The company will offer a weekly service from Moscow Domodedovo from June 2, 2012 adding to its existing flights to Madrid and the popular tourist destination of Alicante. It will use a 128-seat Airbus A319 on the route, configured in a two-class layout.

There is growing demand between Russia and Spain, mainly fuelled by Russians taking holidays although there is a stable business demand between the two countries that is also helping the market grow. In the past year an estimated 994,000 O&D passengers travelled between the two countries, up 48.8 per cent on the previous 12 months. S7 Airlines currently has just a 6.0 per cent share of the O&D traffic between Spain and Russia (the fifth largest operator in the market), but expects to grow about the 10 per cent figure as it enhances its schedules between the countries.

Around 14,000 O&D passengers travelled between Valencia and Moscow’s three main air gateways – Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo. The point-to-point demand between Moscow Domodedovo and Valencia is estimated to be around 10,000 passengers per year with the majority travelling with Iberia via Madrid.