In April, Aeroflot plans to initiate a new schedule of international flights from Sochi, operated with the domestically produced Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft. The plan marks a notable expansion of the airport’s role within the airline group and signals a strategic move to connect Sochi with a broader network across Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia.
Rossiya Airlines, which is part of the Aeroflot Group, will serve several destinations including Egypt, Israel, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and Armenia as part of this new program. The operator emphasized that these routes will be flown using SSJ 100 aircraft, reinforcing the airline’s confidence in the performance and efficiency of the homegrown jet for regional and mid-range international travel.
According to a statement from the company, flights from Sochi to 17 destinations will be conducted with the Superjet 100 fleet, highlighting a centralized approach to fleet utilization and route deployment. A dedicated base will be established at Sochi airport, with capacity to support up to 10 SSJ 100 aircraft, underscoring the airport’s growing function within the Aeroflot Group’s international network.
The airline described the new flight program as designed to boost transit passenger traffic, particularly for travelers moving through Sochi from the group’s hub airports in Moscow, specifically Sheremetyevo, as well as St. Petersburg and Krasnoyarsk. This focus on connection traffic suggests a broader strategy to capitalize on the Sochi gateway by funneling passengers to and from key nodes in the group’s network.
Among the international routes scheduled to commence from April 7, and in some cases from April 8, are flights to Egypt’s Cairo; to Israel’s Tel Aviv; to multiple cities in Kazakhstan including Aktau, Aktobe, Almaty, Atyrau, and Nur-Sultan; to Turkey with Antalya, Bodrum, Dalaman, and Istanbul; to Uzbekistan in cities such as Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent, Urgench, and Fergana; and to Armenia’s Yerevan. The emphasis on diverse city pairs across these regions reflects a strategy to advance regional connectivity and tourism, business travel, and long-standing people-to-people links across major corridors.
In addition to the new Sochi departures, flights to Tehran in Iran are scheduled to resume from April 2, followed by services to Colombo in Sri Lanka starting April 8. These resumption services indicate a lifting of recent suspension patterns that had been in place due to external pressures—specifically sanctions that affected several international routes and shaped corridor choices for the airline group during the prior period.
Earlier in March, international flights across the group’s network were restricted, with exceptions to Minsk remaining in place at that time. The broader environment included reductions in long-haul and cross-border operations as sanctions impacted several carriers. Notably, S7 Airlines and Pobeda Airlines announced a cessation of all international flight operations during this interval, highlighting the challenging backdrop faced by Russian carriers in navigating international air travel at that moment.
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