Budget Airlines Descend on City
Staff Writer
The St. Petersburg Times
Germania hopes to establish its business relations with Pulkovo by this summer. |
At least two budget airlines are expected to enter the St. Petersburg market just as the city's Pulkovo aviation company splits into an airport and an airline this summer. The airlines hope the separation will allow for a more flexible and productive cooperation with St. Petersburg's airport. Aeroflight, a newly formed German airline, will offer service between St. Petersburg and four German cities starting May 1, Cornelia Weisspflug, the company's spokesperson said Tuesday. Tickets will be priced from 109 euros ($143) for a one-way trip to Hamburg or Berlin, and 129 euros ($169) to Frankfurt and Dusseldorf, Weisspflug said. Aeroflight, which positions itself as a "good value for money" airline will provide its flights once a week, on Sundays, with either early departures or late arrivals. Budget operator Germania said it may also initiate flights to the city in time for the summer season, pending Pulkovo's cooperation. "We are trying to solve technical problems and determine time-slot availability in order to enter the local market," Gunter Seibt, a Germania representative, said Wednesday in a phone interview from Germany. Both Aeroflight and Germania tend to offer tickets cheaper than traditional operators such as Lufthansa, although the German-based mainstream airline said it was not worried about increased competition from budget firms. "The amount and timing of our flights allow us to provide the most convenient options to our customers, which is what counts for business travelers," Gunther Ott, Lufthansa's regional director for Russia and CIS, said at a recent news conference, which marked the company's 25-year anniversary of providing a service to St. Petersburg. Lufthansa operates three daily flights to Frankfurt, and tickets start from about 400 euros ($526). St. Petersburg-based travel agency Sirena saw the arrival of the budget operators as attractive mostly to a niche market. "Aeroflight's and Germania's routes will attract those travelers who would accept certain inconveniences to save money," said a representative from Sirena. However, with the reorganization of Pulkovo in progress, few of the airlines have escaped inconveniences. Both budget and regular operators say Pulkovo's high costs and significant limitations in space and infrastructure impede their expansion on the local market. Lufthansa had to cancel its flights to Munich and Dusseldorf this year due to terminal congestion and a lack of convenient flight hours, which made the routes ill-suited for transfer passengers. Considering transfers constitute up to 70 percent of all travel to the two German cities, the flights proved unprofitable, the company said. A solution could be to expand the airport, as suggested by Lufthansa, or at least to make small changes in infrastructure. Some steps forward have been made, airlines note, however substantial airport upgrades will be necessary if St. Petersburg is to realize its ambition of becoming a major tourism center in five years. "Pulkovo is yet to see the installment of the electronic booking or E-ticketing system," said Lufthansa's Ott. The system, which reduces paperwork for traditional operators and cuts costs for budget airlines, is already operating in Minsk and Kiev international airports. Airlines said they hope for a more productive dialogue with the airport upon its separation from the Pulkovo airline, which is expected to be signed July 1. "The airport will become more independent and able to make unbiased decisions," Seibt said. Lufthansa said it was optimistic about future improvements. "There are some airports in Russia where booking is still done by hand even, and there is nothing that cannot be improved in the future," Ott said.
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