On 16 August the Russian airline UTair Aviation commenced once daily flights between Riga and Moscow (Vnukovo Airport).
The airline UTair Aviation from 16 August will perform once daily flights on the route Riga – Moscow. Departure from Riga will take place at 06:15 a.m. (arrival in Moscow at 09:00 a.m.), whereas departure from Moscow is scheduled for 21:10 (Arrival in Riga at 21:50). Duration of the flight is one hour and forty minutes. UTair will perform flights on CRJ type aircrafts. Until now regular air traffic between Riga and Moscow (Sheremetyevo) was provided by the national carrier airBaltic and the Russian airline Aeroflot. From 17 August there will be four flights a day available from Riga to Moscow.
Viacheslav Pļasukhin, UTair Deputy Director of Commerce and Head of the Commercial Transport Complex, said: „The beginning of our airline’s flights between Riga and Moscow is a step forward! RIGA International Airport and the airline UTair as well as both our countries will benefit from it, as the citizens of Russia and Latvia will have more and better travel opportunities. Riga will become our gateway to Europe while Moscow will be the gateway of Latvia's people to other towns of Russia.”
Jānis Ķuzulis, Member of the Board of RIGA International Airport, said: „We are very gratified by the flights commenced by the Russian airline UTair aviation from RIGA International Airport. A significant precondition to our mutual cooperation was our tariff policy that is one of the lowest and most competitive among the airports of the European capitals. UTair’s presence in Riga will provide the population of Latvia, the Baltic and Scandinavia with new and convenient connected flights to further destinations in Russia, as UTair performs more than 100 daily flights from Vnukovo Airport to 60 towns in Russia and other countries.”
In 2009 UTair carried 3.8 million passengers and now it ranks among top five biggest airlines in Russia and is the country’s biggest helicopter company. In terms of domestic passenger traffic UTair is the leading carrier in Russia.
UTair’s fleet consists of 176 aircrafts including 16 Boeing 737-500, two Boeing 757-200, 17 ATR type aircrafts and five CRJ aircrafts. There are also TU-154, TU-134, and AN type aircrafts that UTair operates on domestic flights in Russia.
The flights can already be booked on UTair website: www.utair.ru