Tu-134 to offer business and economy service to Chelyabinsk (320 words)

Published: 9/12/2000

On 4th September 2000, Aeroflot opened a route from Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport to Chelyabinsk in the southern Urals. Using a Tu-134, the route will fly three times a week a offering business and economy class, at Rb4,000 ($143) and Rb2,650 ($95) one way respectively. The Chelyabinsk region has a population of 3.68m people, with the city of Chelyabinsk contributing around 1.1m of the total. Other large cities in the region are Magnitogorsk, which has a large iron and steel producer of the same name and a population of 0.42m, and the city of Zlatoust with a population of 0.20m. According to Alexei Chibrikov, the director of Aeroflot's corporate planning department, the goal of Aeroflot's domestic business is to attract business people from regions from point of departure through to international destination transiting through Moscow. The heavy concentration of large enterprises in the region in addition to steel in areas such as automotive production offers a large potential market for the Russian flag carrier. Aeroflot's competition on the route will be Chelyabinsk Airlines (ChelAl) currently operating three Tu-154Ms, two Tu-154Bs, seven Yak-42s and three Tu-134s, with several aircraft on short-term leases. According to Chelyabinsk, the entry of Aeroflot will not have a detrimental impact on its overall business given it has a number of long-haul routes in addition to their flights to Domodedovo Airport. It would seem however, unlikely that the entry of Aeroflot will not have an impact, as the pricing of tickets from Aeroflot will undoubtedly discount the domestic portion of the journey in favour of the higher margin international leg. Chelal also says that demand in the region is soft, but in the absence of contradictory information and assuming the pattern is similar in Chelabinsk as elsewhere, the Moscow flights have the highest load factors and are generally the most profitable and it is this business Aeroflot will target.

Article ID: 2070