Number of flights from Finland to Moscow to double

Finnair and Aeroflot share blessings of profitable connection

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After years of pleading, the Finnish national carrier Finnair has finally been given permission to increase its number of flights to and from Moscow. Starting from April 2008, Finnair and Russia’s largest airline Aeroflot will fly between Helsinki-Vantaa and the Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow four times a day, or 28 times a week. Both carriers use the Airbus A320 series planes. Presently there are only two daily departures on the route.
     
The commercial arrangements of air traffic between Finland and Russia are based on a traditional bilateral agreement from 1993. According to the agreement, it is permissible to fly from any Finnish airport to Moscow and likewise from any Russian airport to Helsinki, but only by one carrier from each country.
      The restriction prevents internal competition over the routes. For example Blue 1, the Finnish affiliate of the Scandinavian Airline System (SAS), would be very interested in flying to Russia, but has been denied permission to do so.
     
Russia’s reluctance to allow additional departures between the two countries has come as a surprise. The burgeoning wealth of the Russian middle class as well as growing commercial interests guarantee continued demand for the flights, and for Finnair and Aeroflot, who operate in close codeshare cooperation, the route is undoubtedly profitable.
      According to an example from the Finnair online ticket sales, a standard economy class return ticket for the just under two-hour flight from Helsinki to Moscow would cost EUR 883. For an equally long flight from Helsinki to Warsaw in Poland, one would have to pay around EUR 500.
     
For Finnair, the Moscow connection is also important as a feeder flight to the company’s direct daily departure to the United States.
      At present about a quarter of the passengers from Moscow will continue with Finnair to the company’s only scheduled US destination, New York's JFK.
      Having said that, the number of such Russian passengers has slightly been reduced by Aeroflot’s own direct flights from Moscow to the USA and more recently by the arrival of one American carrier on this route.


Links:
  Finnair
  Aeroflot

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