Summary
- Rossiya Airlines has resumed flights to Havana, Cuba from its Moscow-Sheremetyevo hub with a Boeing 777 aircraft.
- The flight to Havana took an unusual routing as a consequence of European airspace bans, passing through the Barents Sea and the Norwegian Sea.
- Rossiya Airlines plans to relaunch flights to Beijing from Vladivostok, Krasnoyarsk, and Irkutsk, after receiving permission from the Chinese authorities.
December marks the resumption of quite a lot of Rossiya Airlines flights between Russia and international routes, including China and Cuba.
Aeroflot-owned Rossiya Airlines announced that it might be reinstating several routes to Beijing from various airports around Russia and has just relaunched services to Havana, Cuba, from its Moscow-Sheremetyevo hub.
Resumption of flights to Cuba
Rossiya Airlines resumed flights to the capital of Cuba, Havana, from its Moscow Sheremetyevo base on December 24 with a Boeing 777 aircraft. The flight departed Moscow at 10:23 – roughly 2 hours late – and landed in Cuba at 15:34. The aircraft in query was a Boeing 777-300ER registered RA-73276. It’s 17 years old and has not operated to a global airport since a charter service to Varadero on November 30.
Photo: Fasttailwind | Shutterstock
The airline has deployed the aircraft on long-haul domestic routes from Moscow to destinations within the east of the country, including Magadan and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, just north of Japan. Flight times on these sectors total roughly 7 to eight hours.
The (re)inaugural recurrently scheduled industrial flight to Cuba took 13 hours and 11 minutes and followed an unusual routing as a consequence of European airspace bans. The flight operated North, parallel to the Russia-Finland border, entered the Barents Sea and the Norwegian Sea, and passed just north of Iceland. The aircraft entered the Atlantic Ocean, crossing past Bermuda before arriving in Havana.
Resumption of flights to China
Rossiya plans to relaunch flights to Beijing from several regions in Russia, including Vladivostok, Krasnoyarsk, and Irkutsk. They were scheduled to have begun by now, with Vladivostok slated for December 17. Nevertheless, Beijing Daxing International Airport informed the corporate that it had not met all the necessities and was thus refused permission.
In an announcement submitted to the Russian state-owned news agency TASS, an unnamed source said:
“Rossiya airline needed to cancel flights to Beijing from regions (Vladivostok, Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk) since it was not in time to make required contracts and fully meet requirements of the Chinese side.”
Photo: Fasttailwind I Shutterstock.
Vladivostok services to Beijing were meant to launch on December 18, operated using a Rossiya Airlines Sukhoi Superjet 100-95 aircraft. Given the dearth of permission, seven flights needed to be canceled through December 27. The following flight is slated for December 29, in keeping with Flightradar24.
Similarly, several flights from Irkutsk (once more using a Sukhoi Superjet 100-95) and Krasnoyarsk (using Boeing 737 equipment) were also canceled as a consequence of the dearth of relevant permission from the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration.
Since then, the airline has received permission from the Chinese authorities to relaunch flights to Beijing with services starting on December 28. It reportedly received an operating permit from the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration, providing slots and rights to operate from the three Russian cities and Moscow. In an announcement, Rossiya Airlines said:
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Krasnoyarsk-originating flights will operate thrice weekly, Vladivostok to Beijing will likely be serviced five times per week, and Irkutsk will run 4 times per week. Rossiya Airlines – owned by Aeroflot – will compete against S7 Airlines on the route between Irkutsk and Beijing and fellow Aeroflot-owned Aurora Airlines on flights from Vladivostok.