Hello, couldn't find a thread related to this topic, decided to start one. Let me know if there is any existing thread about this. Post here for any updates.
I'll start:
Moscow airports grew at different pace in January 2018
http://www.rusaviainsider.com/moscow-ai ... uary-2018/

"Vnukovo demonstrated the best results with a 25.5% improvement in traffic figures on the same month in 2017. In absolute figures, the airport served 1.355 million passengers."

J2flyer wrote:

Hello, couldn't find a thread related to this topic, decided to start one. Let me know if there is any existing thread about this. Post here for any updates.
I'll start:
Moscow airports grew at different pace in January 2018
http://www.rusaviainsider.com/moscow-ai ... uary-2018/

"Vnukovo demonstrated the best results with a 25.5% improvement in traffic figures on the same month in 2017. In absolute figures, the airport served 1.355 million passengers."

That's interesting. I thought that Domodedovo was doing better than the other two. I guess Sheremetyevo has the advantage of Aeroflot and Vnukovo expanding with several different LCC's...

FA9295 wrote:

J2flyer wrote:

Hello, couldn't find a thread related to this topic, decided to start one. Let me know if there is any existing thread about this. Post here for any updates.
I'll start:
Moscow airports grew at different pace in January 2018
http://www.rusaviainsider.com/moscow-ai ... uary-2018/

"Vnukovo demonstrated the best results with a 25.5% improvement in traffic figures on the same month in 2017. In absolute figures, the airport served 1.355 million passengers."

That's interesting. I thought that Domodedovo was doing better than the other two. I guess Sheremetyevo has the advantage of Aeroflot and Vnukovo expanding with several different LCC's...

After the demise of Transaero Domodedovo is not doing so well as before. It used to be Russia's busiest airport. Now it's well behind Sheremetyevo. But in my opinion DME has a bright future. SVO and VKO are space constrained while DME not much so. It is scheduled to open a second terminal in March. Later on it will have the third terminal and up to 3 more runways.

Always wondered why they built a new airport in Rostov-on-Don. Didn't see anything wrong with the old one. There was room to build a proper terminal building if needed. The runway was over 8,000 ft, which was perfectly fine for a regional airport, and there was plenty of room to expand it, if needed.

Maybe the old airport land was ripe for development? The new airport is also much further from the city.

Thenoflyzone wrote:

Always wondered why they built a new airport in Rostov-on-Don. Didn't see anything wrong with the old one. There was room to build a proper terminal building if needed. The runway was over 8,000 ft, which was perfectly fine for a regional airport, and there was plenty of room to expand it, if needed.

Maybe the old airport land was ripe for development? The new airport is also much further from the city.

Yes. Viktor Vekselberg, one of the wealthiest Russian businessmen, was given the site of the old airport. His company will build an upscale residential neighborhood there, with the former runway serving as the core street. In return he invested most of the money in the construction of the new airport.

Alexdk wrote:

FA9295 wrote:

J2flyer wrote:

Hello, couldn't find a thread related to this topic, decided to start one. Let me know if there is any existing thread about this. Post here for any updates.
I'll start:
Moscow airports grew at different pace in January 2018
http://www.rusaviainsider.com/moscow-ai ... uary-2018/

"Vnukovo demonstrated the best results with a 25.5% improvement in traffic figures on the same month in 2017. In absolute figures, the airport served 1.355 million passengers."

That's interesting. I thought that Domodedovo was doing better than the other two. I guess Sheremetyevo has the advantage of Aeroflot and Vnukovo expanding with several different LCC's...

After the demise of Transaero Domodedovo is not doing so well as before. It used to be Russia's busiest airport. Now it's well behind Sheremetyevo. But in my opinion DME has a bright future. SVO and VKO are space constrained while DME not much so. It is scheduled to open a second terminal in March. Later on it will have the third terminal and up to 3 more runways.

I think the role of airports in Moscow will look more like the 3 main NYC airports, DME being like JFK, SVO as a fortress hub for SU like EWR for UA, and VKO being a city airport like LGA. Would like to see VKO to grow, and more road access for DME.

J2flyer wrote:

Alexdk wrote:

FA9295 wrote:

That's interesting. I thought that Domodedovo was doing better than the other two. I guess Sheremetyevo has the advantage of Aeroflot and Vnukovo expanding with several different LCC's...

After the demise of Transaero Domodedovo is not doing so well as before. It used to be Russia's busiest airport. Now it's well behind Sheremetyevo. But in my opinion DME has a bright future. SVO and VKO are space constrained while DME not much so. It is scheduled to open a second terminal in March. Later on it will have the third terminal and up to 3 more runways.

I think the role of airports in Moscow will look more like the 3 main NYC airports, DME being like JFK, SVO as a fortress hub for SU like EWR for UA, and VKO being a city airport like LGA. Would like to see VKO to grow, and more road access for DME.

Don't know about that, I think SVO is more like JFK. For many in Europe that's the primary airport and many consider it as the main gateway to the city... at least here in eastern Europe.

I agree. Historically, SVO has always been the JFK of Moscow. It is also once again the busier of the three, just like JFK.

Although one can argue that ever since Star Alliance (minus CA and JP) and Oneworld (minus AY) abandoned SVO and moved to DME, the latter has taken the role of Moscow's main international airport, especially since it has more foreign carriers than SVO as well as the ME3.

Passenger count for 2017.

SVO 40.3 million (+19%)
DME 30.7 million (+7.6%)
VKO 18.1 million (+30%)

I think you misunderstood me a little bit. I do agree that SVO is the busiest, my point of likening SVO to EWR lies on the fact that SVO is SU dominated airport, whereas at DME you have S7 and U6 alongside few others, hence SVO looking more like a fortress hub.

J2flyer wrote:

Alexdk wrote:

FA9295 wrote:

That's interesting. I thought that Domodedovo was doing better than the other two. I guess Sheremetyevo has the advantage of Aeroflot and Vnukovo expanding with several different LCC's...

After the demise of Transaero Domodedovo is not doing so well as before. It used to be Russia's busiest airport. Now it's well behind Sheremetyevo. But in my opinion DME has a bright future. SVO and VKO are space constrained while DME not much so. It is scheduled to open a second terminal in March. Later on it will have the third terminal and up to 3 more runways.

I think the role of airports in Moscow will look more like the 3 main NYC airports, DME being like JFK, SVO as a fortress hub for SU like EWR for UA, and VKO being a city airport like LGA. Would like to see VKO to grow, and more road access for DME.

Yes! That's exactly what I think. But there is a problem that while Aeroflot is like United, there are no other large airlines like American and Delta (Transaero was kind of) in Russia.

Thenoflyzone wrote:

I agree. Historically, SVO has always been the JFK of Moscow. It is also once again the busier of the three, just like JFK.

Although one can argue that ever since Star Alliance (minus CA and JP) and Oneworld (minus AY) abandoned SVO and moved to DME, the latter has taken the role of Moscow's main international airport, especially since it has more foreign carriers than SVO as well as the ME3.

Passenger count for 2017.

SVO 40.3 million (+19%)
DME 30.7 million (+7.6%)
VKO 18.1 million (+30%)

LOT is also (since this summer partly) in SVO. But Vietnam Airlines is in DME.

Some fresh news from S7
"S7 Airlines and Globus, the two subsidiary carriers of Russia’s S7 Group, both reported stable growth on domestic and international routes for January 2018. The country’s second biggest airline group transported a total of 1,098 million passengers, up 8.3% year-on-year.

S7 Airlines, a oneworld member, carried 794,606 passengers across Russia, or 9.4% more than in January 2017. Growth on international routes amounted to 5.7% at 303,838 passengers.

The airline’s revenue passenger kilometers increased by 6.9% to 2,240,561; its cargo turnover increased by 6.3% to 209,815 revenue ton kilometers."
http://www.rusaviainsider.com/russias-s ... r-traffic/

Do you think S7 is in position to more effectively challenge SU Group airlines and expand? They have started receiving A320 NEO, have A321 NEO and B737MAX8 in order.

J2flyer wrote:

Some fresh news from S7
"S7 Airlines and Globus, the two subsidiary carriers of Russia’s S7 Group, both reported stable growth on domestic and international routes for January 2018. The country’s second biggest airline group transported a total of 1,098 million passengers, up 8.3% year-on-year.

S7 Airlines, a oneworld member, carried 794,606 passengers across Russia, or 9.4% more than in January 2017. Growth on international routes amounted to 5.7% at 303,838 passengers.

The airline’s revenue passenger kilometers increased by 6.9% to 2,240,561; its cargo turnover increased by 6.3% to 209,815 revenue ton kilometers."
http://www.rusaviainsider.com/russias-s ... r-traffic/

Do you think S7 is in position to more effectively challenge SU Group airlines and expand? They have started receiving A320 NEO, have A321 NEO and B737MAX8 in order.

On the short-haul domestic market yes. On the short-haul international maybe. On the long-haul no. Their owner Vladislav Filev has continuously stated that they are not planning to order any widebodies. But their hub in Novosibirsk allows them to operate many attractive one-stops from Europe to Asia.

1. Has Star Alliance made any progress at securing a Russian member? What with the demise of Transaero, who would it be, UTAir? Ural Airlines?

2. How is LH's traffic into Russia? After the Crimea crisis, they cut back significantly, to the extent TK became the largest foreign carrier into Russia. Is there any chance LH would re-start service to VKO?

The fourth airport Zhukovsky (previously known as Bykovo) also becomes a player.
Onur Air and many carriers from the former union's republics fly there.
So Moscow has four international airports.
http://zia.aero/en/

SurlyBonds wrote:

1. Has Star Alliance made any progress at securing a Russian member? What with the demise of Transaero, who would it be, UTAir? Ural Airlines?

2. How is LH's traffic into Russia? After the Crimea crisis, they cut back significantly, to the extent TK became the largest foreign carrier into Russia. Is there any chance LH would re-start service to VKO?

1. I don't think there is a need for a Russian member at *A, because UTAir and specifically Ural Airlines usually focus on P2P from different airports with some additional seasonal flights for popular destinations. But if there would be a candidate for one I think UTAir is a possible option, they are adding new routes from VKO, and with Rossiya planning to move to SVO, UT could expand even more. Note that UT has also recently revealed a new branding and livery, however bland or uninspiring it might be.

2. I cannot say numbers wise, but 4 daily to FRA and 2 daily to MUC seems good enough and not small for LH. Feel free to correct about that part. About TK, they usually have cheap connection flights from VKO, with seasonal increases to AYT and so on, feels like low-yield operation. All of the LH Group airlines are based in DME and with LX and OS having lounges and DME owner being determined to not to lose any more traffic, I don't see any reason for the move to VKO, even though I would like that. Hope I answered your questions.

"S7 Airlines becomes Russia’s second largest carrier again"
"Operational results of S7 Airlines in January positioned it to reclaim its title as Russia’s second largest commercial air operator after flag carrier Aeroflot. The position had been held by Aeroflot’s sister company Rossiya Airlines since February 2017.
Rossiya carried 644,900 passengers in January, sliding 4% year-on-year, the Federal Air Transport Agency (FATA) reports. S7 Airlines outperformed its January 2017 result by 15.4% with 797,900 passengers.
Igor Veretennikov, CCO of S7 Group (S7 Airlines’ parent company), earlier revealed that the carrrier had “registered steady traffic growth on both domestic and international routes” in January this year. With the mountain skiing season in full swing, the operator saw an increase in traffic to Sochi, Munich, and destinations in Austria and northern Italy."
http://www.rusaviainsider.com/s7-airlin ... d-carrier/

Good to see S7 getting strong results.

Alexdk wrote:

But their hub in Novosibirsk allows them to operate many attractive one-stops from Europe to Asia.

Aside from Russia/CIS they only fly to FRA/MUC/DUS, LCA and PRG in Europe and these flights are more than 6.5 hours block time (approaching 787-800 limits), some Asia flights like BKK are already longest A320neo flights (almost 8h block time!). Moreover, Europe flight are just weekly, so international Europe-Asia transit hub is quite out of scope now.

Can anyone explain why S7 hasn't expanded further into Western Europe especially to the United Kingdom and in particular to London considering that they are part of OneWorld!

I would of thought that they could at least start a connection to London from Novosibirsk or from some other secondary city in Russia.

Is S7 the only Russian airline to own shares in a non-Russian airline? They hold 40% of Cyprus Airways and have provided them with the A319s.

Any chance S7 will order the SSJ-100?

lollomz wrote:

Any chance S7 will order the SSJ-100?

S7 may order SSJ-75, a shortened version. https://www.aex.ru/news/2018/2/19/181450/

Cunard wrote:

Can anyone explain why S7 hasn't expanded further into Western Europe especially to the United Kingdom and in particular to London considering that they are part of OneWorld!

I would of thought that they could at least start a connection to London from Novosibirsk or from some other secondary city in Russia.

Bilateral aviation agreements between Russia and most other countries are written so that they benefit Aeroflot (and the respective foreign airline) in the first place. The destinations unserved by S7 (London, Paris, Amsterdam e.t.c.) would probably become significantly less profitable for Aeroflot if another airline steps in. I may oversimplify, as there are other factors present (lack of slots like in LHR, lack of connections, Natural monopoly of some airline), but this is the main. As for Novosibirsk, it can provide connections from Europe to Asian Russia and from Eastern Europe and Russia also to Eastern Asia, but unlikely from non-Eastern Europe to Eastern Asia or from anywhere to Southeastern Asia. Anyway, in the best case the DME hub of S7 will be much larger than any other (and probably even the second largest hub will be LED).

[quote="Alexdk"]Bilateral aviation agreements between Russia and most other countries are written so that they benefit Aeroflot (and the respective foreign airline) in the first place.
Bilaterials do have a lot of conditions but I don't think it is truly impossible to get some traffic rights for London. NordWind (mostly charter airline) does hold daily allowance to LED-LON at the moment but I doubt they're ever going to try it. Moreover, S7 just self-renounced rights for daily LED-AMS (and LED-ZRH), see FAVT: http://www.favt.ru/public/materials//b/ ... 33ed58.pdf
As for MOW-LON, there is probably enough much O&D capacity (since BA is not flying 777/747 on this route anymore, only A321 and daily 787) and SU probably commands a bit premium + makes a lot of transfers.

Are there any particular reasons why an airline would choose DME over SVO (or VKO for that matter)?

Most other carriers seem to opt for DME, why is that? Also, why is Aeroflot solely based at SVO?

Apologies if this has been previously discussed elsewhere.

TSA125 wrote:

Are there any particular reasons why an airline would choose DME over SVO (or VKO for that matter)?

Most other carriers seem to opt for DME, why is that? Also, why is Aeroflot solely based at SVO?

Apologies if this has been previously discussed elsewhere.

I there are 2 main reasons against SVO:
1) Outdated E and F terminals and congested D used by SU
2) Excellent feed from S7 in DME (SU should be better in SVO, but it is probably much easier to negotiate with S7)

Cunard wrote:

Can anyone explain why S7 hasn't expanded further into Western Europe especially to the United Kingdom and in particular to London considering that they are part of OneWorld!

S7 used to fly from Moscow to MAD and codeshare with IB but they cut the route last year.

https://www.routesonline.com/news/38/ai ... june-2017/

They also fly to TXL and DUS to partner with (now defunct) Air Berlin.

In any case they have quite a few "sun & sea" routes to Southern Europe. For instance in Spain they fly to ALC, AGP, BCN, PMI, IBZ, TFS and VLC; also a few in Italy. So it is not like they don't fly to Western Europe.

J2flyer wrote:

I think the role of airports in Moscow will look more like the 3 main NYC airports, DME being like JFK, SVO as a fortress hub for SU like EWR for UA, and VKO being a city airport like LGA. Would like to see VKO to grow, and more road access for DME.

I don't think VKO is remotely comparable to LGA.

Vnukovo is somehow the low-cost airport. Aeroflot flies to SVO; their low-cost Pobeda flies to VKO. Emirates flies to DME; their low-cost FlyDubai flies to VKO. And VKO has got flights as long as to Hong Kong this week!

London would be a better comparison. SVO could be LHR (the fortress of the main carrier - BA and SU -). DME could be something like a second main airport (LGW); even if DME gets more legacies. And VKO could be something like STN, a basket case of low-cost and non-aligned carriers. And ZIA... who knows? Something like SEN?

thevery wrote:

TSA125 wrote:

Are there any particular reasons why an airline would choose DME over SVO (or VKO for that matter)?

Most other carriers seem to opt for DME, why is that? Also, why is Aeroflot solely based at SVO?

Apologies if this has been previously discussed elsewhere.

I there are 2 main reasons against SVO:
1) Outdated E and F terminals and congested D used by SU
2) Excellent feed from S7 in DME (SU should be better in SVO, but it is probably much easier to negotiate with S7)

Terminal E is not outdated. It is actually newer than D (2009 vs 2010). In my opinion it is also much more comfortable and convenient.

SCQ83 wrote:

J2flyer wrote:

I think the role of airports in Moscow will look more like the 3 main NYC airports, DME being like JFK, SVO as a fortress hub for SU like EWR for UA, and VKO being a city airport like LGA. Would like to see VKO to grow, and more road access for DME.

I don't think VKO is remotely comparable to LGA.

Vnukovo is somehow the low-cost airport. Aeroflot flies to SVO; their low-cost Pobeda flies to VKO. Emirates flies to DME; their low-cost FlyDubai flies to VKO. And VKO has got flights as long as to Hong Kong this week!

London would be a better comparison. SVO could be LHR (the fortress of the main carrier - BA and SU -). DME could be something like a second main airport (LGW); even if DME gets more legacies. And VKO could be something like STN, a basket case of low-cost and non-aligned carriers. And ZIA... who knows? Something like SEN?

But DME is just physically larger than SVO. It took years to find a place for one additional runway in SVO. In DME there is a space to build like 3 more runways and a couple of separate terminals (present terminals are really just concourses). Also the difference between the distances to the city limits is less than for LGW and LHR.

If it is of anyone's interest on this thread here, I have made a new separate post regarding WOWair's upcoming World Cup charter flights to Moscow with the Airbus A330-300. WOWair has not yet specified which of Moscow's airports that they intend to fly to:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1390533

Does anyone know the status of the six ex SU IL96? Beside the one that Cubans used to fly which is now stored in HAV?

SR380 wrote:

Does anyone know the status of the six ex SU IL96? Beside the one that Cubans used to fly which is now stored in HAV?

Two went to Cubana, one burned down at SVO, three stored at SVO.

Alexdk wrote:

SR380 wrote:

Does anyone know the status of the six ex SU IL96? Beside the one that Cubans used to fly which is now stored in HAV?

Two went to Cubana, one burned down at SVO, three stored at SVO.

I knew about the one in the hybrid liberty. Is there another?

SR380 wrote:

Alexdk wrote:

SR380 wrote:

Does anyone know the status of the six ex SU IL96? Beside the one that Cubans used to fly which is now stored in HAV?

Two went to Cubana, one burned down at SVO, three stored at SVO.

I knew about the one in the hybrid liberty. Is there another?

I stand corrected. 3 are stored in Voronezh at Ilyushin plant (including RA-96011 which I perceived to be transferred to Cubana) and one is stored at SVO.

https://russianplanes.net is up again. It is a very good register of Soviet/Russian planes, provided you know Russian). There is a link to English version but it is currently dead.

New development around VKO.

Qatar Airways to acquire 25% of VKO airport. It is expected that QR will make a switch from DME to VKO in coming months.
In English: http://www.rusaviainsider.com/qatar-rus ... t-airport/
In Russian: https://www.vedomosti.ru/business/artic ... ar-airways

I didn't know QR was interested in any form of airport ownership, so it is an interesting move to say the least.

Transition to VKO is not yet confirmed actually.
The main problem is feed loss from S7 and they probably need some codeshare with UTair or Rossiya.

Alexdk wrote:

https://russianplanes.net is up again. It is a very good register of Soviet/Russian planes, provided you know Russian). There is a link to English version but it is currently dead.

Hallelujah! It looks as though the site has been cleaned up a bit, with all of the same features--pics, links, news, chat, videos, etc.--as before. Even that tiny Union Jack in the upper-right hand corner is back. I know that it's supposed to be a link to an English version, but I don't think that it ever worked, even on the original website. However, my Google Translator does Cyrillic just fine!

VKO is the fastest growing airport in Moscow, based on April numbers. SVO also enjoyed growth, whereas DME numbers is down 4.3% compared to April 2017.

"Vnukovo (VKO) nevertheless remains the fastest growing of the three airports. Its April expansion rate was 19.4 per cent as it handled 1.524 million passengers, an improvement put down to “successful cooperation” between the airport and its base airlines, as well as attracting new airline customers, the airport explains. International traffic through Vnukovo increased 33.2 per cent to 507,000 passengers, with Antalya, Istanbul, Phuket, Baku, Dubai, Larnaca, Dushanbe, Tbilisi, Milan, Goa, Bangkok and Minsk ranking highest among the most popular destinations."

In English: http://www.rusaviainsider.com/moscows-d ... oy-growth/

J2flyer wrote:

VKO is the fastest growing airport in Moscow, based on April numbers. SVO also enjoyed growth, whereas DME numbers is down 4.3% compared to April 2017.

"Vnukovo (VKO) nevertheless remains the fastest growing of the three airports. Its April expansion rate was 19.4 per cent as it handled 1.524 million passengers, an improvement put down to “successful cooperation” between the airport and its base airlines, as well as attracting new airline customers, the airport explains. International traffic through Vnukovo increased 33.2 per cent to 507,000 passengers, with Antalya, Istanbul, Phuket, Baku, Dubai, Larnaca, Dushanbe, Tbilisi, Milan, Goa, Bangkok and Minsk ranking highest among the most popular destinations."

In English: http://www.rusaviainsider.com/moscows-d ... oy-growth/

This might sound stupid but why would someone chose VKO over DME or SVO? I know they are located in different areas of the city but is VKO closer to downtown than other airports?

Any reason why DME numbers are falling?

Red Wings launches DME-BEG this month, three weekly. They will indirectly compete against JU/SU which operate 24 weekly from SVO.

Actually numbers in VKO mainly raised cause charter flights to AYT have resumed during last year. So they factor in the biggest increase. Also regional carrier RusLine switched Ops from DME to VKO in order to cooperate with UTair ( the two offer now many codeshares )

Blerg wrote:

This might sound stupid but why would someone chose VKO over DME or SVO? I know they are located in different areas of the city but is VKO closer to downtown than other airports?

For airline airport choice is all about alliances/codeshares/interlines - Skyteam mostly (except VN and FV) flies to SVO, Oneworld and ME3 to DME (interline/codeshare with S7) and VKO for TK and the rest smaller international carriers.
For the pax airport choice is about proximity to home with DME being the farthest from the donwtown and VKO/SVO roughly the same distance. But with "aeroexpress" high-speed rail availability is comparable - 46 minutes to DME vs 35 to SVO and VKO.

Hello readers,
Happy New Year to everyone! Continue posting in this link: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1411935