New European and Asian flight destinations are slated to make their debut on the St. Petersburg airport’s route network in the 2017-18 winter navigation season. The changes to the schedule for the approaching season (entering into effect at the end of October) were announced by representatives of the concerned airlines and Pulkovo’s management company — Northern Capital Gateway — at the 10th anniversary presentation of seasonal debuts at the St. Petersburg airport on September 29, 2017.
“Northern Capital Gateway is continuing its active efforts to develop Pulkovo’s route network, attract new airlines and expand travel opportunities departing from St. Petersburg for residents of the City on the Neva river and the Russian Northwest. This coming season, flight geography will be supplemented by at least 11 new destinations and three new airlines, including yet another low-cost carrier, will be starting flights from Pulkovo,” noted Evgeniy Ilyin, Chief Commercial Officer of the airport’s management company.
New routes
S7 Airlines will launch flights from Pulkovo to Europe’s premiere ski resorts — to Verona, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Lyon, and Turin. Ural Airlines will be flying from St. Petersburg to one of the largest cities in Uzbekistan — Namangan, and to the Spanish “Island of Eternal Spring”, Tenerife. Pulkovo’s main carrier, Rossiya Airlines, will open flights to Pardubice (Czech Republic) and Sharjah (UAE). Flights will also start from St. Petersburg to two new Chinese destinations — Chengdu and Kunming, which will be operated by Lucky Air, making its debut as a new airline for Pulkovo.
New airlines
Aside from Lucky Air, in October 2017, two other airlines will launch operations at Pulkovo — Russia’s Azimuth will be starting flights to Krasnodar and Rostov-on-Don, while Azerbaijan’s low-budget carrier Buta Airways will open regular flights to Baku.
Additional flights
Compared to last winter season, plans call for increasing the weekly frequency of flights from Pulkovo to such cities as: Astana, Dubai, Kishinev, Moscow, Samara, Syktyvkar, Istanbul, Novosibirsk, Helsinki, Tyumen, and others.
Over the New Year’s holidays, additional flights will be performed from St. Petersburg to Belgrade, Rome, Brussels, and other European capitals.
Over the first 8 months of 2017, Pulkovo Airport serviced 10.9 mln people, representing a 24% increase over the same period last year. Passenger traffic on domestic airlines grew by 20.2% — to 6.7 mln people. On international airlines, traffic expanded by 31.6% — to 4.2 mln people.
Pursuant to the rules established by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the aviation-season calendar is divided into two periods. The summer season runs from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. The winter season continues from the last Sunday in October to the last Sunday in March. Thus, the 2017-18 winter season starts on October 29, 2017 and runs until March 24, 2018, inclusively.