The largest Russian airline, Aeroflot, is planning to add more connections between India and Russia beyond its Delhi-Moscow route. Kidisyuk Sergey, its General Manager for India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, discusses details with Ankita Saxena
Aeroflot recently celebrated its 60 years of regular air service between the Indian and Russian capitals. The airline started its India operations with one weekly flight from Delhi to Moscow. In view of the increase in demand and interest among the Indian travellers for Russia, the airline increased its frequency in the spring of 2016 to two daily flights between Delhi and Moscow.
Kidisyuk Sergey explains that an average of 500 seats is available on the two daily flights between Delhi and Moscow. He said, “During the summer time, the traffic from India to Russia is significantly higher. Indian travellers are showing more and more interest in our product and prefer Aeroflot to not just to fly between the two capitals but also beyond Moscow to a larger network of international destinations of our airline.”
Given its size and potential as well as positive legacy of bilateral ties with Russia, India remains a priority market for Russia's largest airline. Sergey elaborates, “Taking into consideration that India is a huge country and the demand is growing, we shall consider beginning operations to new destinations in India soon. Currently we do not have any code-share agreements with the Indian carriers but we have partnered with Air India and Jet Airways. We are looking at collaborating with our new interline partner Vistara as well.” The general manager pointed out that the airline is working with renowned Indian travel agencies and has a big agency network.
It is important to note that Aeroflot’s fleet is one of the youngest in the world with an average age of the fleet at four years. The fleet consists of Airbus A320, B737, Airbus A330, B777 and Sukhoi SuperJets-100 aircraft. As of August 1, Aeroflot includes 245 passenger aircraft. The year 2017 was a record-setting one for the Moscow-Delhi route where the airline carried almost 290,000 passengers, a 50 per cent year-on-year increase.
The Moscow-Delhi route is strategically important for Aeroflot as it aims to further grow transit traffic between Europe and Asia. Sergey added, “Passengers choose Russia's leading airline to travel from Delhi to destinations in Russia and Europe. Among Aeroflot's competitive advantages are our competitive fares, high-quality service and convenient transit via the airline’s hub at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.” The Aeroflot transit passengers connecting between India and Europe enjoy the shortest air-time and award-winning service.
