From 28 December 2023, Red Wings Airlines started operating regular direct flights on the Sochi – Dubai route. The new route will be served by SuperJet 100 aircraft.
“Sochi is becoming a real regional hub with convenient connections. We see good steady demand, including to Dubai, which has become one of the most popular destinations for Russian tourists this year,” said Maria Postolovskaya, First Deputy General Director of Red Wings.
The aircraft will depart from Sochi on Saturdays at 02:30 and return from Dubai at 08:10 on the same day. Taking into account the large number of people wishing to go to the Arab Emirates for the New Year holidays, Red Wings has put an additional flight on the schedule for 9 January 2024.
In January 2024, the airline will also open regular passenger routes to 12 new domestic destinations. Due to the new flights, passengers will be able to quickly and inexpensively fly between Russian regions on domestic Superjets directly, bypassing the Moscow air hub. The project of Red Wings regional route network development is implemented with the support of the federal programme of air transport subsidies provided for by the Government Decree No. 1242. This was reported in the press service of the airline.
In the first week of 2024, five new routes will open at once. The first of them on 1 January will be the Samara-Makhachkala flight WZ -1331/1332, and during 2-6 January flights will start on the routes Ufa – Novokuznetsk, Tyumen – Makhachkala, Chelyabinsk – Nizhnevartovsk and Nizhnekamsk – Novy Urengoy.
By mid-January, the Red Wings route network will be supplemented with three flights from Samara to Chelyabinsk, Novy Urengoy and Volgograd, as well as flights between Volgograd and Tyumen. The Saratov – Makhachkala and Ekaterinburg – Ulyanovsk routes will be opened next. In February, flights between Ekaterinburg and Arkhangelsk will start. Most of the new flights will be switched to a twice-weekly frequency during the year.
In addition, Red Wings plans to develop Ekaterinburg – Kemerovo routes (increasing the frequency from once to twice a week), as well as weekly flights Omsk – Mineralnye Vody.
At the end of December, as a gift for the New Year 2024, the airline leased a medium-range domestic Tu-214 aircraft (RA-64518). The aircraft’s cabin has a layout with 194 passenger seats in monoclass. It is an aircraft that was previously operated by Transaero Airlines, and after its withdrawal from the market, was transferred to Red Wings. But in 2017, Red Wings returned the aircraft to the lessor and it was in storage in Kazan. Now, after its airworthiness has been restored, the aircraft is back in service and is preparing to resume flights on the carrier’s route network.
The Tu-214 will perform flights to international destinations. Since February Red Wings will put the liner on flights to Baku, Tbilisi and Tel Aviv. As for the livery of the aircraft, the Russian Aviation website has learnt that there are no plans to change it, the aircraft will remain in the corporate livery of the United Aircraft Corporation.
