During initial three quarters of 2021, Koltsovo Airport provided its services for 4.6 million passengers, of whom 3.8 million used domestic flights. This year 17 airlines operate flights from Yekaterinburg to 52 Russian cities and three Moscow airports.
In 2021 the proportion of travelers using direct interregional flights increased. For example, 2.4 million passengers took advantage of them in the initial 9 months of 2021, up 42% over the first 9 months of 2019 and 65% over the same period in 2020. The share of passengers taking direct interregional flights in the three quarters of this year has exceeded 63% of overall traffic on domestic flights.
The rapid development of interregional air travel in 2021 was made possible primarily due to the support from the Sverdlovsk regional government. The region has allocated RUB 248 million to subsidize interregional flights, according to Russian Government Resolution No. 1242. By the end of the year, there will be flights to 14 destinations that are subsidized from the regional budget.
The Sverdlovsk regional government has applied to the Federal Air Transport Agency (FATA) for subsidizing 18 regional routes in 2022. Among the new routes are Voronezh, Kemerovo, Tobolsk, and Vladikavkaz.
“All of these routes have proved popular with the public, but they need financial support from the federal and regional budgets. This will allow to make their costs as affordable as possible for flyers. The final selection will surely be made by the Ministry of Transport and FATA, which have all the information they need to coordinate the route network within the country for all regions,” notes Dmitry Brusyanin, Deputy Minister of Sverdlovsk Region for Transportation and Road Network.
Due to reciprocal subsidies from other Russian regions and the federal budget, 29 subsidized flights will be operated from Yekaterinburg in 2022 as per the plan. The average load of such flights in 2021 will be 74%. Currently, Koltsovo Airport is one of the leaders in Russia by the number of open interregional routes.
“We are very much satisfied with the first year’s results. During this period, Red Wings has carried 470,000 passengers from Koltsovo. In January-September 2021, we carried 380,000 passengers from Koltsovo and by the end of 12 months, we will reach the mark of approximately half a million passengers. The number of Red Wings domestic routes from Yekaterinburg exceeds the route networks of all other airlines. The regional low-cost airline project is being fully implemented; it allows people to travel across the country at affordable prices without any need for connection flights. Our plans for 2022 include flights from Yekaterinburg to approximately 30 international and domestic destinations and further development of the city’s tourism and transit potential,” said Evgeny Klyucharev, CEO Red Wings.
“Our challenge at the next stage is to develop regional transfers and connections for our two backbone airlines: Red Wings and Ural Airlines. It is important to note that a code-share agreement has been signed between them. Next year, the transfer will be burgeoning further that will give us the opportunity to develop our route network and will allow Sverdlovsk Region residents to fly to wherever they want, cheaply and without making any connections,” emphatically comments CEO Airports of Regions MC Evgeny Chudnovsky.