Russian carrier Ural Airlines has announced this week the launch of new flights between Sochi and Istanbul.
Air travel between Russia and Turkey has intensified significantly in the last 12 months, with this new route adding to that.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
The New Sochi-Istanbul Flights…
Ural Airlines will begin flights between Sochi and Istanbul on March 31, operating on a four-weekly basis.
Flights will run on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays until October 30 this year.
This makes the airline the fifth to add flights between the two airports, with the others being:
- Rossiya
- Azimut
- IrAero
- Red Wings
Ural Airlines is taking advantage of the growth received in Sochi, with the Istanbul flights handling over 380,000 passengers last year.
Traffic rose by 7.6% in 2023 to 13.913 million passengers, which is due to the airport being the only one open in the Krasnodar Territory.
The Airline’s Fleet…
As per data from Planespotters.net, Ural Airlines has a fleet of 51 aircraft.
Of that 51, 44 are in active service and seven are parked, hosting an average fleet age of 14.5 years.
The Russian airline does have the infrastructure to operate these Sochi-Istanbul flights, but this has been tested over the last 12 months.
Following the beginning of the conflict with Ukraine, Ural Airlines was stripped of it’s export privileges.
Two incidents involving their aircraft took place over a year ago, with the first being an A320 being disabled on the runway at Irkutsk.
The second was the emergency landing in a Novosibirsk field that took the internet by storm.
With the airline not able to source any additional Western aircraft, there has been a reliance on waiting for Russian production to kick into high gear.
Overall…
In conclusion, all eyes will be on how these new flights between Sochi and Istanbul will perform with Ural Airlines.
It remains clear that there is significant demand for these flights that can be shared amongst the other four competitors.
Providing there will be success on the route over the Summer season, all eyes will be on whether they will return next year.
But for now, let’s see how the new flights perform.
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