Yamal Provides Moscow Link for Gothenburg

Russian operator Yamal Airlines will introduce the first direct air services in more than ten years from the Swedish city of Gothenburg to the Russian capital Moscow. The small carrier, based in Salekhard, mainly serves domestic markets with the Armenian capital Yerevan and Azerbaijani city of Ganja its only current international destinations.

Yamal will introduce a three times weekly service on the route from March 26, 2012 using Domodedovo Airport as its terminus in the Russian capital. The airline will use its expanding fleet of 50-seat Bombardier CRJ200 regional jets to service the route. Although this will be Yamal’s first scheduled European destination the flight is not the first link between Gothenburg and Moscow following the collapse of the Soviet Union as Aeroflot Russian Airlines offered up to two flights per week to the Swedish city from its Moscow Sheremetyevo hub between October 1991 and February 2000, mainly using 68-seat Tupolev Tu-134s.

In the past year an estimated 15,000 O&D passengers travelled between Gothenburg and destinations in Russia. The majority of these (an estimated 68.5 per cent) were flying in or out of the Russian capital, most using the services of SAS Scandinavian Airlines via Stockholm or Copenhagen.