Aeroflot Group has decided not to increase fixed tariffs on Far Eastern flights transferred to its subsidiary airline Rossiya. Tickets for flights operated by Rossiya after October 28 are now sold for 13,200 rubles one way instead of 15,000, and for 22,000 rubles round trip instead of 25,000, reports Travel.ru's own correspondent.
The opening of sales on August 27 for winter schedule flights at increased rates, simultaneously with a reduction in the level of service due to the transfer of routes to a subsidiary airline, caused a wave of discontent in the Far East. After local and federal authorities drew attention to the problem, Aeroflot returned prices to the previous level (for Rossiya flights) on August 30.
This means that for some Far Eastern passengers, tickets will become slightly cheaper in the last two months of this year, since many of them will have no alternative but to fly Rossiya instead of Aeroflot. However, this will be achieved at the expense of a lower level of service. In addition, it is unclear at what level Aeroflot will set fixed tariffs for 2019 for both its own flights and Rossiya flights.
Fixed fares are traditionally revised in January. They first appeared on Far Eastern routes in 2015 and were 11,000 rubles one way and 18,000 rubles round trip. In 2016, prices rose to 12,000 and 20,000 rubles, respectively, and in 2017, to 13,200 and 22,000 rubles. These prices were left for 2018 for Rossiya flights, while for Aeroflot's own flights, they jumped to 15,000 and 25,000 rubles in 2018. When Aeroflot transferred most of its own Far Eastern flights to Rossiya on October 28, it tried to transfer the increased fare to them as well, but this attempt has so far failed. However, it is unknown what prices the company will set from 2019.
Let us recall that fixed rates apply only to direct flights between Moscow and the Far East (as well as Kaliningrad and Simferopol). Their application leads to a significant increase in the minimum price in the low winter season (approximately twice as much as before the introduction of fixed rates), and to a decrease in average prices in the high summer season (simultaneously with a shortage of seats on many flights). In addition, the fixed rate now gives only 25% miles from the flight distance in the Aeroflot Bonus loyalty program, that is, only about a thousand miles for each flight across the entire country.
Business class prices, which are not covered by the fixed fare policy, have also been reduced back to around 50,000 roubles one way. Aeroflot initially also tried to transfer its prices (around 90,000 roubles one way) to Rossiya flights, some of whose planes do not have horizontally reclining seats in business class.
Let us recall that the flights from Moscow to Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Kaliningrad and Simferopol transferred to Rossiya will continue to be serviced from Sheremetyevo, but now by Rossiya aircraft, not Aeroflot. Rossiya flights to all these destinations from Vnukovo will be discontinued. The changes will come into effect on October 28 (for flights from the Far East - from October 29). The Moscow-Vladivostok route will be a temporary exception: Aeroflot flights will partially remain on it until at least spring. Aeroflot flights will remain on the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky route only until December 9.
At Sheremetyevo, Rossiya will use the old and less convenient terminal Sheremetyevo-3 (D). All of Aeroflot's own domestic flights are to be operated from the new terminal Sheremetyevo-1 (B) from October 28. The companies have announced that Rossiya will also operate flights to Bali and Orenburg from Sheremetyevo, but there are currently no sales for Rossiya flights on the latter of these lines.
Passengers who previously purchased tickets for Aeroflot flights will be transferred to Rossiya flights (their schedule generally corresponds to the previously planned Aeroflot flights). Those who are not satisfied with such a change may be able to return their tickets without a penalty, but there are now practically no alternative flight options to the Far East, except for transfers in Siberia and individual direct flights of Nordwind Airlines.
Aeroflot did not roll back fares on routes from Moscow to Kaliningrad and Simferopol, where there are a sufficient number of alternative flight options with other airlines. Let us recall that from October 28, Rossiya will operate 4 flights a day on Boeing 737-800 from Sheremetyevo to Kaliningrad and Simferopol according to the previous Aeroflot schedule. At the same time, three of the four Kaliningrad flights and one of the four Simferopol flights will not have business class. And on flights where business class will be retained, it will be approximately 20-30% more expensive than on current Rossiya flights from Vnukovo. The changes in the price of economy class on these routes are not so significant: for some passengers they will be slightly higher, for others - lower.
The order of transfer of Far Eastern flights at the moment looks like this. On the route to Vladivostok, the schedule will be ragged from October 28 - three different schedule options are used on different days of the week. On Mondays and Tuesdays, the Rossiya plane (Boeing 777) will depart from Sheremetyevo at 16:10, and the Aeroflot plane (Airbus A330) at 20:45. On Thursdays and Fridays, both of these flights will be operated by Aeroflot A330s. Finally, on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, there are three departures: at 16:10 and 20:45 by Aeroflot A330s, and at 18:50 by Rossiya's Boeing 777. There will be three flights back from Vladivostok on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays (Aeroflot at 9:20 and 14:05, Rossiya at 12:00), two Aeroflot flights on Fridays and Saturdays (at 9:20 and 14:05), and on Tuesdays and Wednesdays Rossiya will depart at 9:10, and Aeroflot at 14:05.
Aeroflot will serve the route to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky only until December 9 with an Airbus A330 (departure from Sheremetyevo at 17:00 and back at 13:25). From December 10, the Aeroflot aircraft will be replaced by a Boeing 777 of Rossiya. In addition, additional Rossiya flights also on Boeing 777 will be operated from October 30 only on Tuesdays and Fridays at 19:40 from Sheremetyevo and on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 16:00 from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
On the route to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, from October 28, there will be only one Rossiya flight on a Boeing 777 according to the previous Aeroflot schedule. On the route to Khabarovsk, 12 flights per week are planned. The daily flight departs at 21.50 from Sheremetyevo and at 14.40 from Khabarovsk, and from October 28, it will be served by a Rossiya Boeing 777. The second flight is expected only on weekdays from Moscow at 18.35 (and from Tuesday to Saturday from Khabarovsk at 11.20). From October 29 to December 8, it will also be operated by a Boeing 777, and from December 10, by a more capacious Rossiya Boeing 747. Aeroflot's weekly flight from Moscow to Magadan will disappear from October 28, while Rossiya will continue to fly four times a week, but from Sheremetyevo instead of Vnukovo.
Aeroflot will use the released aircraft to open new routes. From October 28, Aeroflot will begin flights from Moscow on a dozen new routes - to Nalchik, Vladikavkaz, Nazran, Grozny, Makhachkala, Izhevsk, Dublin, Ljubljana, Gothenburg, Colombo and Dubai's second airport. In addition, the company is considering the possibility of starting flights to the Dominican Republic, Mauritius and the Seychelles, as well as to Chengdu in China and resuming flights to Mumbai. Aeroflot will also increase the number of flights to Bangkok and Phuket.
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Let us recall that soon passengers of all Russian airlines may lose the guarantees of free transportation of briefcases, handbags, backpacks, outerwear, as well as baby food, medicine, canes, crutches and other items necessary for medical reasons. This is the draft order of the Ministry of Transport, prepared after the appeal to the ministry by the airline Pobeda, which demanded that passengers be deprived of all these guarantees. If the draft is approved, carriers will be able to limit passengers to only 5 kilograms of hand luggage, and the permissible dimensions of such luggage will be determined by the airlines themselves (Pobeda itself already uses a tiny “calibrator” measuring 36x30x27 centimeters for this, in which it is impossible to place many ordinary small city bags, as well as some mobile electronics - for example, some laptops).
Source: travel.ru
