The Aeroflot-owned Rossiya Airlines will commence flights from St Petersburg to both Zagreb and Ljubljana next month. The airline has scheduled a one weekly service from Russia’s second largest city to both the Croatian and Slovenian capitals, with tickets now available for purchase via Aeroflot's website. The Russian carrier intends on maintaining flights to Zagreb each Friday starting January 21, while operations to Ljubljana are due to be inaugurated the following day, on Saturday January 22. Changes remain possible, however, the carrier recently applied and received permits from the Russian aviation authority to introduce services to both cities.
Based on its current schedule, flights to Zagreb will be maintained with the 168-seat Airbus A320 aircraft, featuring twelve seats in business class and the remaining 156 in the economy cabin. On the other hand, operations to the Slovenian capital will be operated by the Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft, boasting 87 seats, of which twelve are in the business class cabin. As a result, both cities are set to see their only scheduled nonstop service to St Petersburg. During the pre-pandemic 2019, 3.983 passengers flew indirectly on a single itinerary between Russia’s second largest city and Zagreb based on OAG data. This is in addition to those flying nonstop on Croatia Airlines' seasonal service between the two which has since been terminated. Similarly, 3.428 travellers flew indirectly between St Petersburg and Ljubljana.
There has been increased demand for services between Russia and Zagreb in recent months due to the availability of coronavirus vaccines for foreigners in Croatia. Russian citizens, who can only be vaccinated against Covid-19 with Russian-manufactured vaccines in their home country, are increasingly seeking different types of jabs in order to be able to travel throughout Europe and the United States, which, for the most part, do not recognise the Russian Sputnik vaccine. Last week, Russia’s S7 Airlines scheduled one weekly operations between Moscow and Zareb starting next month. On the other hand, Slovenia recently resumed issuing tourist visas to Russian nationals for the first time in almost two years, resulting in increased demand as Slovenia is one of just a handful of European Union member states to recognise the Sputnik vaccine.
Further flight details for the planned St Petersburg - Zagreb service can be viewed here, while additional information for the planned St Petersburg - Ljubljana flights can be found here.
Very nice addition!
ReplyDeleteThat Zagreb schedule is a bit horrible.
ReplyDeleteHmm yes the red eye flight and arrival at 4 in the morning isn't the most pleasant of experiences.
DeleteTrue. Ljubljana schedule is quite good though.
DeletePity it's just once per week. But hopefully these new routes work and they stick around.
ReplyDeleteSo demand from LED to ZAG and LJU seems to be equal.
ReplyDeleteYes but there were also people flying nonstop on OU's ZAG-LED flight.
DeleteWonder what the fares will be like
ReplyDeleteKnowing Russian airlines, probably not cheap.
DeleteIt's a full fare airline?
DeleteObviously if they have business class
DeleteAnyone flown with them? I'm really interested to know what their service is like and do what their cabins look like
ReplyDeleteAlso, do they have a dedicated business class cabin?
DeleteIt all depends which plane you get. They have blue leather seats and they do have a proper business class.
DeleteInteresting. I can't find too many pics online.
DeleteYes even Sukhoi has proper business class. 2x2 seating compared to 3x2 in economy.
DeleteMost Russian airlines have a good and competitive on board product which puts most European airline to shame.
DeleteLet's hope these actually materialize. When it comes to Russian airlines you are never sure.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to any airline at the moment, new routes are all unsure.
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteInteresting that their A320 and SSJ have the same number of seats in business class, 12.
ReplyDeleteI guess because they use them a lot on domestic routes inside Russia where there is a lot of demand for business class.
DeleteThat was unexpected.
ReplyDeleteThey better start selling those tickets ASAP if they want to have decent loads.
ReplyDeleteThey are probably already selling and working with Russian tour operators.
DeleteSame was said about Azur
DeleteWell same was said about Nordwind too and they are still flying to Zagreb.
DeleteThey are the world's largest Sukhoi operator!
ReplyDeleteBecause the Russian government has forced on them to become essentially an SSJ operator.
DeleteThey have a nice collection of other planes including B747 and B777 :)
Deletebtw they have 65 Sukois in service and another 33 on order.
DeleteThey are the largest Sukhoi operator because Aeroflot is transferring all its SSJs to them.
DeleteAbout time there flights from St Petersburg to Zagreb and Ljubljana.
ReplyDeletefor that we will have to wait a bit, I have a feeling that much longer than till 22 of January...
DeleteReally good to see more and more new routes being announced across the region.
ReplyDeleteSeems like airlines are optimistic about next year and that this might be the last Covid wave.
DeleteKeep them coming!
DeleteAh nice to see the Sukhoi back in Ljubljana :)
ReplyDeleteWhat equipment does Aeroflot use to Ljubljana now?
DeleteA320s
DeleteIn addition, 9 additional flights are planned until and including 15 January (a total of 10 on Christmas Day), most of them with Airbus A321, two on 29 December 2021 and 2 January 2022 will even be operated with a wide-body Airbus A330. In total, according to the estimate, the carrier is expected to offer between 4,000 and 4,500 additional seats on additional scheduled flights and with the introduction of larger return flights in the next three weeks.
DeleteSource:https://sierra5.net/
So there will be 4 different Russian airlines flying to Zagreb!
ReplyDeleteAeroflot, Rossiya, Nordwind and S7 Airlines.
DeleteYet Croatia Airlines hasn't given the Russian market any consideration. Not even when half of its European markets are closed or in lockdown.
DeleteIt is the great BCG strategy of doing nothing.
DeleteImpressive. Unfortunately I don't think all of them will stay around once Sputnik is accepted by WHO.
Delete^ That won't happen any time soon by the looks of it.
Delete@9.19 expecting Croatia Airlines to react to any market conditions is to be expected. They only react when they have to cut flights or decrease frequencies.
DeletePlus Azur Air will have a couple of charters to Zagreb in the next week.
DeleteGood luck with the new routes. Really hope they work.
ReplyDeleteI also hope they work but most importantly I hope they are kept after the vaccine craze.
DeleteIs it easy for Russians to get visa to visit Slovenia?
ReplyDeleteI like their crew uniforms :) look very stylish
ReplyDeleteIndeed
Deletehttps://cdni.rbth.com/rbthmedia/images/2019.08/original/5d63c8c885600a279931c478.jpg
Looks similar to Aeroflot.
DeleteThat livery on the other hand...
DeleteLooks fine to me
DeleteSome positive news when most airlines are cutting flights.
ReplyDeleteRussian airlines in general seem to be booming.
DeleteWould be nicer if the flights were operated by Aeroflot mainline.
ReplyDeleteWhat difference does it make, honestly?
DeleteWhat's with Russian airlines and one weekly flight frequencies?
ReplyDeleteIt's Russia's anti Covid policy. They are limiting flights to all countries.
DeleteI'm surprised Nordiwnd wasn't the one to start these flights.
ReplyDeleteI believe Nordwind's strategy of opening random routes has kind of had an impact now. They have recently reduced and discontinued a lot of routes. Although none in the region are impacted.
DeleteI'm happy it's a different airline.
Delete@09,37
DeleteNot too sure how far back you consider as recent, but they have canceled ROV-BEG.
They have also cancelled their Skopje flights.
DeleteLet's see if these ever launch and if how long they last.
ReplyDeleteMakes sense
ReplyDeleteGood to see both ZAG and LJU included.
ReplyDeleteRossiya operated a couple of charters to Zagreb during the world cup in 2018. With the B777 :D
ReplyDeleteThey have also sent the B747 to Dubrovnik as well.
DeleteThey have over 120 planes! :O
ReplyDeleteThey are the largest airline at LED.
DeleteSeems like Russian airlines have discovered Zagreb.
ReplyDeleteLove it!
ReplyDeleteLJU is on its way to recovery
ReplyDeleteA very slow one but at least something.
DeleteAre you serious? With that one flight per week?
DeleteI'm speaking in general with all the announced flights for next few months. And in the era of covid with so few frequencies in general even a one weekly flight counts.
DeleteOf course it counts, but thats far away from recovery.
DeleteThem Russian airlines beginning flights to the Balkans on Fridays is obviously becoming something new. For instance Ural launching ZIA-SOF next week. We also witnessed Nordwind from LED-SKP. I think it's got to do with the Russian government by trying to promote the Balkans and connecting them with Russia.
ReplyDeleteThis is good news. Ljubljana needs all the airlines it can get!
ReplyDeleteDoes Rossiya allow for connections via St Petersburg?
ReplyDeleteOf course
DeleteThis would be great
ReplyDeleteThere is strong demands at the moment. Aeroglot is sending A330 to ZAG and LJU during the holidays.
ReplyDeleteWow? Really? What days the A330 will be in LJU?
Deletehttps://www.exyuaviation.com/2021/12/aeroflot-to-deploy-wide-body-jet-to.html
Deleteone more addition for winter 2021-2022 :) nice
ReplyDeleteSamara, Yekaterinburg, Krasnodar or Sochi would be nice additions.
ReplyDeleteHow about Moscow-Maribor?
DeleteLet's first get these St Petersburg flights going.
DeleteThe list of airline serving Ljubljana is actually becoming quite good
ReplyDelete+1
Deleteat least what new CEO is saying is true ... lets see what else they bring for SS22.
DeleteI wish them success
ReplyDelete@ex-yu aviation
ReplyDeleteThe article says : "as a result, both cities are set to see their first scheduled nonstop service to St. Petersbug". This is not true. Both cities had scheduled nonstop flights to St. Petersbug. Croatia operated twice weekly A319 only few years ago from ZAG. And some thirty, fourty ears ago, JAT operated seasonal one weekly from LJU using leased Aviogenex TU134
Price from Ljubljana to St Petersburg is 260€ return (you can buy them on Aeroflot website not on Rossiya). Same days Lufthansa is 150€ . travel time is 3 hours vs. Lufthansa 5h 20m.
ReplyDeleteWell roughly 100 euros might be more worth it for nonstop flight. Does it include baggage on both?
Deleteonly hand luggage for both flights.
DeleteFantastic! And tickets are now on sale
ReplyDeleteThis is just fantastic news.
ReplyDeleteAt least Slovenia accepts the Sputnik vaccine.
ReplyDeleteThat most european countries boycott the vaccine because it is from Russia only proofs that politics is not at all interested in the wellbeing of the people, just in their dirty shemes.
Yeah, and Slovenia is a proof how the pandemic should be handled. Right?
DeleteAt least they dont boycott vaccines!
Deletewell the pandemic is handled pretty well in Slovenia. The only thing I think they miss is a little stricter restrictions.
DeleteSlovenia is handling the pandemic in a terrible way.
DeleteFrom mid September 2021 till now in the worse top 12 for covid in all Europe (nearly 50 countries).
Sputnik is recognised only because Hungary have it (mutual recognition).
No Sputnik, no any classic vaccine recognised by WHO available in Slovenia till now.
Vaccination campaign just finished with only 2 mRNA vaccines. Go figure!
Even Equador is better offering 5 vaccines including Sputnik and a classical vaccine among them.
Slovenia: no masks worn outside and nearly zero bills for breaking the prevention rules.
DeleteIn one word: terrible!
Not to count the worse: hundreds of millions of euro paid in bonuses to workers in public sector not working from home (burocrats in office, doctors, policeman, forestry workers, bank employers, post office workers ...) working already during covid, without stopped income by covid. Getting all this for months and months till mid June 2021. 35, 65 and 100 percent bonus pay every single month for everyone. No tax No country in EU did it: such a shame and additional big debit for a poorly managed country!
DeleteMisuse of money, according to EU policy but who cares Slovenians will pay it back alone.