Ural Airlines Will Run Scheduled Services Ekaterinburg—Peking

04.07.2009 — News

THE SVERDLOVSK OBLAST.

The Ural Airlines will fly the first scheduled flight Ekaterinburg - Peking on 5 July 2009. The A-320 will take five and a half hours to fly non-stop to the Chinese capital.

It is planned that the flight will by run by the Ural Airlines and Air China on a parity basis. However, the Ekaterinburg airport Koltsovo informed RusBusinessNews that the Chinese company will start running the flights no sooner than 6 August 2009. Air China is planning to fly a Boeing-767 twice a week.

Experts note that the Urals company may stop running its weekly service in the future. One mid-range A-320 craft will not match the two long-range Boeing craft. Moreover, it will be difficult to sell over 600 seats on three flights a week. The Ural Airlines are offering a return ticket for the price from 450 Euro and their sales volumes remain at an extreme low.

The average passenger traffic on the Ekaterinburg - Peking route by analysts' estimates will not exceed 300 per week. It is also possible that the Ural Airlines, in August already, will by a block of seats on Air China flights and will give up their own Peking slot.

The Ural Airlines management has already stated the strategic nature of the service to Peking before. The Chinese capital must become the touchdown point on the way from the Urals to Japan and the South-East Asia. The position of Air China in this issue seem more advantageous. It is most likely that the Chinese carrier will be providing connections for Asian businessmen travelling to the Urals, the interest to the region is growing steadily year in year out.