Ukraine International Increases Penetration in Russian Market

Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) and S7 Airlines have entered into an interline agreement on flights between Kiev and Moscow. The Ukrainian carrier has after many years of campaigning, secured the rights to introduce its own flights to the Russian capital and will introduce a twice daily link to Domodedovo Airport from July 20. S7 Airlines already offers a daily service and these three rotations will be optimised to maximise benefits for the two carriers.

An estimated 481,000 O&D passengers travelled between Kiev and Moscow in the past year, a market dominated by Aerosvit Airlines (48.1 per cent) which offers up to four flights per day to Sheremetyevo Airport in the Russian capital and at least a daily schedule to Vnukovo Airport. Transaero Airlines, which offers a twice daily connection, has a 21.0 per cent share, while Aeroflot Russian Airlines has a 20.2 per cent share, also with a twice daily offering. S7 Airlines is ranked fourth on the route with an 8.7 per cent share of the traffic.

Through the marketing agreement with S7 Airlines, UIA will be able to offer connections from Moscow to a range of destinations in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), including Anapa, Barnaul, Chelyabinsk, Ekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Kemerovo, Krasnoyarsk, Nizhnevartovsk, Novokuznetsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Osh, Pavlodar, Perm, Rostov, St. Petersburg, Semipalatinsk, Tomsk, Tyumen, Ufa, Ulan Ude and Ust-Kamenogorsk in Russia, Yerevan in Armenia, and Baku in Azerbaijan.