Travel to Russia gets off the ground

Alternative Airlines, the new on-line flight booking site which specialises in offering airlines and routes not offered by other online travel providers, has reported an increase in the number of passengers using the site to book domestic sectors exclusively within Russia.

From the total of 240 airlines available for booking through the site, fourteen are Russian-based carriers but these twelve generate a far greater percentage of total bookings than the expected figure of 6%. All of these airlines are immediately bookable on-line and ticketable through Alternative Airlines service centre, which is based near London Gatwick Airport.

Currently top of the list of Russian carriers booking through Alternativeairlines.com is KD avia, which has a hub and spoke operation from its home airport of Kaliningrad to ten of the major cities of Russia including Moscow, Ufa, Samara, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Kazan, Tyumen. Volgograd, Nizhniy Novgorod and St Petersburg.

Managing Director John Pope said: "Russian aviation is booming with more and more carriers acquiring new western built aircraft. It is no longer the case that every passenger has to transit through Moscow to get to a major regional city, now there are many alternative routings which offer cheaper, faster and more convenient ways of flying within Russia. For many businessmen who make their own travel arrangements, it is imperative that these journeys can be booked on-line and alternative airlines now makes this possible."

Alternative airlines currently offer easy on-line bookings for the following Russian carriers: Aeroflot, Dniproavia, Domodedovo Airlines, KD avia, Kogalymavia, Motor Sich Airlines, Pulkovo Air, Rossiya, S7- Siber, SAT Airlines , Severstal Air Company, Transaero, Ural airines and VIM.