While foreign air carriers quit the Russian market in droves amid falling demand, Russia’s only low-cost airline, Pobeda, is in the midst of launching unprecedentedly cheap flights to Europe.
On Nov. 12, the low-coster, a subsidiary of Russia’s national carrier Aeroflot, opened sales of tickets for its first international destinations, Bratislava and Vienna (which includes a flight to Bratislava and then a bus trip to Austria’s capital) with ticket prices starting from 999 rubles ($15).
The move was surrounded by plenty of hype. As many as 2,700 tickets were sold within the first 10 hours of sale.
Apart from Bratislava and Vienna, Pobeda is planning to launch flights to the European cities of Salzburg, Verona, Bergamo, Chambery, Dresden and Cologne. The sales for two new destinations will start by the end of the year, the company said in a statement.
The rush caused by the start of ticket sales for international destinations indicates that there is plenty of demand for cheap plane tickets in Russia — though that doesn’t necessarily guarantee the success of the new budget airline, the experts said.