OREANDA-NEWS. On October 26, 2008 S7 Airlines, Russia’s largest air carrier by number of transported passengers on domestic routes, switched to its winter flight schedule on October 26, 2008. The schedule will remain in effect through March 28, 2009, reported the press-centre of S7 Airlines.  

During the winter season S7 Airlines will add a number of new routes, add new flights on existing routes and expand its geographical reach through active cooperation with foreign airlines in the form of code-sharing and interline agreements. During the winter period S7 Airlines will operate regular flights to 69 Russian and foreign cities in all.

What makes this winter season different is that all S7 Airlines flights after November 17 will be operated exclusively on foreign-made Boeing and Airbus airplanes painted in the S7 livery*. This means that all S7 Airlines passengers will soon enjoy the same level of comfort whether on domestic or international flights. Business class passengers will also appreciate the higher level of service.

During the winter season S7 Airlines will continue to operate the flights that were opened during the summer period of 2008 but not operated last winter. These routes are: Moscow-Dublin, Moscow-Krasnoyarsk, Moscow-Yekaterinburg, Moscow-Bratsk and Novosibirsk-Bishkek.

Beginning December 23, 2008, S7 Airlines will begin to operate its own non-stop flight to Thailand on the Moscow-Bangkok route. The flights will be operated on a new type of long-distance airliner—S7’s new Boeing 767-300ER, which it acquired in October 2008. The Boeing 767-300ER has a spacious passenger compartment, which makes long-distance flights as comfortable as can be.

During the winter season, S7 Airlines will increase the frequency of the flights on the following routes: Moscow-Baku, Moscow-Kiev, Moscow-Chisinau, Moscow-Krasnodar, Moscow-Samara, Moscow-St. Petersburg, Moscow-Novy Urengoi, Moscow-Ufa, Moscow-Khabarovsk, Moscow-Vladivostok and Novosibirsk-Dubai (UAE).

S7 Airlines will be cooperating more closely with its foreign partners during the new season. The company has signed a code-sharing agreement with Air Berlin, thereby increasing the frequency of flights to Germany to seven flights a day. The flights will be operated on the Moscow-Frankfurt, Moscow-Dusseldorf, Moscow-Munich and Moscow-Hanover routes. And beginning in December, 2008 S7 Airlines and the Austrian airline Niki will begin joint operation of a Moscow-Vienna flight.

Due to the decommissioning of the Soviet-made Tu-154 and Il-86 airplanes, the airline is cutting some of its flights to some Russian cities whose airports have not been cleared to accept foreign-made aircraft.

The S7 Airlines winter charter flight program includes the traditional routes Hurghada, Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt), Dubai (UAE), Barcelona, Alicante, Tenerife (Spain), Ovda (Israel), Plovdiv (Bulgaria), Salzburg (Austria), Larnaca (Cyprus), Chambery and Nantes (France). Already operating flights to Rimini and Ancona, S7 will add a third Italian city—Turin.