Belavia and Yamal to start flights to Zhukovsky Airport

The dates have finally been set for the first flights into Zhukovsky Airport (ZIA) near Moscow.

Belarusian flag-carrier Belavia is scheduled to operate the first flight to Zhukovsky Airport (ZIA, Moscow’s new airport) from Minsk on September 12. The flight will then be operated daily, and the carrier may increase frequency provided the traffic on the route picks up, according to Anatoliy Gusarov, Belavia’s general director.

These flights will be operated by a E175 regional aircraft in a two class configuration,  with 12 business class seats and 64 seats in economy.

“Zhukovsky is offering good facilities for passengers, including convenient means of further travel to Moscow and Moscow Oblast,” the head of Belavia emphasized. He also ruled out that Belavia’s flights to Domodedovo may be cancelled. On the contrary, the fact that Zhukovsky does not have the status of a Moscow airport enabled the Belarusian carrier to offer more flights to Russia’s capital.

Another carrier, the Russian airline Yamal, is counting on launching service to Zhukovsky Airport in October, according to Sever-Press newswire, which cites Yamal’s CCO Andrey Dubrov. The destinations have not yet been announced, but Dubrov said two Airbus A320s will operate from ZIA.

Yamal is one of the three Russian carriers that have recently received approvals from the Federal Air Transport Agency to fly from Zhukovsky, the other two are VIM-Avia and Ural Airlines. Yamal holds rights for service to Vienna, Plovdiv, Budapest, Munich, Tbilisi, Aktau, Prague, Baku and Tel Aviv.

In the meantime, Transport Directorate -2018 company, which is responsible for transport support of the FIFA Championship in 2018, alocated approvals to 11 airlines for providing service to Zhukovsky Airport from six countries in Europe, CIS and Baltics, the US, China and Turkey.