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Vladivostok Air launched its first regular flight to Europe. The new route strengthened company position on the international air carriage market and provided Vladivostok Air passengers with new options.
On April 30th Vnukovo Airport hosted the opening ceremony for Vladivostok Air flight Moscow — Frankfurt-Hahn. Oleg Nikolsky, Head of Transportation System Development Division of Moscow Department of Transport and Communications; representatives of OJSC Vnukovo Handling headed by General Director Oleg Vetvinsky; Gennady Proshchikin, Production Facility Director of OJSC Vnukovo International Airport and Viktor Kryuchkov, Vladivostok Air Deputy General Director, Head of Flight Service gave their speeches during the presentation. The speakers emphasized the project perspective and apparent convenience of the new flight for passengers.
First Passenger Certificate for Vladivostok Air flight Moscow — Frankfurt-Hahn was issued to businessman from Stuttgart Martin Anders Kert, who was flying back from Nizhny Novgorod to Germany accompanied by his colleague. This flight became a remarkable event for Martin. He was given flowers and souvenirs at the check-in counter and offered to participate in the presentation where he was awarded with a certificate for one free return trip to the destination by any regular domestic flight of Vladivostok Air. This opportunity was a nice gift for Martin, he said he would take the advantage to visit his friends in Vladivostok.
German side prepared some surprises for the new Russian flight with the official delegation and first passengers. Vladivostok Air aircraft, first landed in Frankfurt-Hahn, was sloshed with water from two fire trucks according to local aviation custom. The guests were welcomed by a large delegation of top officials from Ministry of Transport, Land Parliament Department, Frankfurt-Hahn Airport Directorate and various businesses concerned. The welcomers, in their turn, admired performance of Primorye folklore group led by RF Honored Artist Viktor Korkishko. He walked down the airstairs in a boyar dressing to the song Vdol to Piterskoy to give true Russian coloring to the welcome ceremony.
Then a briefing was held for German mass media where Frankfurt-Hahn was noted as a large transit center. For instance, the largest German low-cost airline Ryanair performs flights from the airport on 45 routes. So passengers from Moscow and other Russian cities are now able to take flights from Vnukovo Airport to Germany and other European countries at low cost. Cologne, Mainz, Trier, Saarbrucken, Koblenz, Darmstadt, Heidelberg, Metz, Luxemburg are one or two hours drive from Frankfurt-Hahn. It will take passengers an hour and a half to get from the airport to Frankfurt center by bus. Vladivostok Air included bus transfer (both ends) from Frankfurt-Hahn Airport to the most popular destinations into its ticket cost.
The new flight is performed by A-320 on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Departure from Vnukovo Airport at 12:20 pm Moscow time, arrival in Frankfurt-Hahn at 01:50 pm local time. Return flight from Frankfurt-Hahn Airport departs at 03.10 pm and arrives in Moscow at 08:10 pm Moscow time.
Vladivostok Air has performed regular and charter flights from Vnukovo Airport since the beginning of 2005, and it is one of the largest air carriers in the airport. In 2007 the airlines performed about 3 thousand flights via Vnukovo and carried 336.4 thousand passengers, 38.8% more than in 2006. The high air transportation growth speed is observed this year as well. For the first three months in 2008 Vladivostok Air transported via Vnukovo 67.9 thousand passengers, 47.1% more than in similar period of 2007.
Flight Opening Ceremony Photos
PR Department
Vladivostok Air
oso@vladavia.ru
