S7 Airlines and Aeroflot have cancelled almost all flights on the Moscow-Chisinau route for the winter period. At the same time, Siberia is leaving the route completely, and the frequency of Aeroflot flights has been reduced sevenfold: instead of the current two flights per day, the carrier will make only two flights per week, reports our own correspondent Travel.ru.
The probable cause was Ukrainian sanctions: let us recall that regular flights of Russian airlines have been prohibited from using Ukrainian airspace for almost three years. As a result, Aeroflot and Siberia cannot effectively compete with flights of local airlines Air Moldova and FlyOne: a flight between Moscow and Chisinau takes Russian carriers almost twice as long - more than three hours versus less than two for Moldovan companies. Accordingly, the costs of fuel, crew salaries and air navigation services are also significantly higher.
It is likely that until now the flights of Russian companies were mainly supported by transfer passengers flying to various airports in Russia and other countries with a transfer in Moscow. However, it can be assumed that due to the increasing number of flights of the budget airline Wizzair to various European destinations from Chisinau, the number of people wishing to fly from there somewhere with a transfer in Moscow has decreased somewhat.
The final flight of Siberia to Chisinau will take place on October 15. It is not known whether flights will resume next spring or summer — there are no sales for these dates. However, Siberia sells tickets for three daily Air Moldova flights from Domodedovo to Chisinau, including connecting tickets with its flights from other cities (for example, Novosibirsk — Moscow on a Siberia flight and then to Chisinau on an Air Moldova plane). The company can also transfer passengers who have tickets for cancelled Siberia flights to these same Air Moldova flights.
Aeroflot has left only flights from Moscow on Wednesdays and Sundays at 22:20 and back from Chisinau on Thursdays and Saturdays at 1:40 in its schedule for the period from October 28 to March 30. At the same time, for the summer schedule of next year (from March 31), the schedule still includes two daily flights - flights from Moscow at 7:25 and 20:35, back from Chisinau at 0:50 and 11:30. In all cases, the Airbus A320 aircraft is used on the route.
Passengers who still have Aeroflot tickets for cancelled flights have two options: a full refund or a transfer to the two remaining flights of the week. However, the latter option should be used as soon as possible due to the limited number of seats on these flights. Aeroflot does not offer alternative flights from Moldovan companies - none of them fly from Sheremetyevo.
Source: travel.ru