Austrian Airlines expands Russian Route Network

Austrian Airlines is expanding its route network in Russia. From the beginning of the 2008 summer schedule, three flights a week will take off for each of two new destinations, the cities of Sochi and Nizhniy Novgorod. Fokker 70 aircraft will operate both routes.

Traffic to Sochi begins on 1 April, with the first flight to Nizhniy Novgorod departing the following day, 2 April. Austrian already offers passengers five Russian destinations in the cities of Rostov, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Krasnodar.

Austrian Chief Executive Officer Alfred Ötsch commented on the expansion, “As part of the highly successful Focus East strategy of the Austrian Airlines Group, we are expanding our Russian route network to seven destinations this year. Business people both at home and abroad value our commitment to Russia enormously; the seven destinations we now serve are the attractive centre’s of population in the country, and all demonstrate a highly dynamic economic growth. In this way, we are once again underlining our leading role as a specialist and pioneer in the east, and the destinations of Sochi and Nizhniy Novgorod also strengthen our transfer traffic.”

The Olympic City of Sochi

Founded in 1838, the city of Sochi lies at the foot of the Caucasian Mountains on the east coast of the Black Sea. With 300 days of sunshine a year, the city is one of the most popular beach and health resorts in Russia and is currently experiencing a boom in tourism. Sochi is to host the 2014 Winter Olympics. Sochi is served by direct evening flights from Vienna on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with return flights reaching Vienna in the early morning, offering passengers ideal connections to Central and Western Europe and the USA and Canada.

Nizhniy Novgorod

Located some 400 kilometers’ east of Moscow; Nizhniy Novgorod is Russia’s fifth-largest city and boasts a highly developed industrial sector. The city is also considered Russia’s architectural Mecca, and consequently of interest to tourists as well as business travellers. The city was renamed Gorky from 1932 to 1991, after one of its most famous sons, author Maxim Gorky, before returning to its original name of Nizhniy Novgorod with the fall of Communism.

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