Aeroflot Plans Direct Flight to Cancun
(16/AUG/2011).- RUSSIA’S FLAGSHIP CARRIER, AEROFLOT, has announced it plans to offer a direct route to Cancun in late October of this year, as the number of Russian visitors to Mexico registers a steady increase.
According to statistics released by Mexico’s Toursim Ministry (Sectur), in 2010 the number of Russian tourists arriving to Mexico was up 134% on 2009, meaning a total of 27,137 tourists arrived to the country from Russia last year.
Meanwhile, up to the end of April this year there has been an increase of 64% over the same time period in 2010, so things are definately looking good for the future of Russian tourism to Mexico. In fact, the local tourism authorities are hoping that the number of Russian visitors to Mexico could reach 40,000 by the close of this year.
The new route is to be launched between Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO) and Cancun International Airport (CUN) on October 30th, with flights every 10 days in the company’s Airbus 330-200, offering seating for 241 passengers (34 in first class).
The only other Russian airline currently offering scheduled flights to Cancun is Transat Aero, which operates out of Moscow’s Domodedovo International Airport (DME). This is the second largest passenger airline in Russia with 65 aircraft.
So, we’ll have to see how the new competition affects Transat Aero‘s passenger numbers nce Aeroflot introduces its newly announced services.
This announcement by Aeroflot comes shortly after the news that the airline is to be privatizad as part of the Russian government’s first phase of the country’s privatization program for state-owned companies, according to the local Finance Minister, Alexei Kudrin. Other sectors to be privatized under the program include telecommunications, petroleum and diverse transport companies.
Initially, the idea was being considered to connect Moscow with Cancun and the Mexican capital: Mexico City, this having been mentioned during this year’s Tourism Tianguis in Acapulco, however, maybe sometime in the future the Russian airline will once again think of introducing flights directly to the capital of the Republic.
Aeroflot’s fleet is currently made up of 107 aircraft including the Airbus A320-family, Airbus A330s and Boeing B767s, as well as its Ilyushin IL96 aircraft, and it is scheduled to receive 10 Sukhoi Superjet 100s (SSJ-100s) before the end of this year (it received its first SSJ-100 in June) with a total of 30 on order and an option to buy a further 10 aircraft.
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Aeroflot Plans Direct Flight to Cancun
