Pulkovo St. Petersburg Airport will launch new European and Asian routes in the IATA Winter season 2018/2019. The airport operator Northern Capital Gateway (NCG) and the airlines announced the upcoming additions to the schedule on October 5, 2018, at the traditional winter season routes presentation.

New Routes

Direct service to at least eight new destinations will commence from Pulkovo, all new to St. Petersburg airport's winter schedule. Russian low-cost carrier Pobeda will launch scheduled flights to Bergamo (Italy), Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen Airport (Turkey) and London - Stansted Airport (UK). Ural Airlines will be flying from Pulkovo to Navoi (Uzbekistan).

The network of long-haul flights for the winter season 2018/2019 will receive additional service from St. Petersburg to the Chinese destinations of Guyan and Haikou on Hainan Island. Flights will be operated by iFly Airlines.

New routes will also include European destinations. Germania announced plans to continue into the winter period flights to Dresden (Germany), which began in summer 2018. S7 Airlines will provide scheduled winter flights to the Mediterranean resort city of Alicante (Spain), a first for the winter schedule of Pulkovo Airport.

Additional Fights

As the air travel demand from and to St. Petersburg grows, several airlines will expand their service at LED and launch additional flights on the existing popular domestic and international routes. Ural Airlines will enhance its flight network from the Northern capital of Russia with a new foreign destination - Frankfurt am Main (Germany, flights opened in the summer season). Uzbekistan Airways will fly from Pulkovo to Namangan (Uzbekistan), and S7 Airlines will commence winter service to Sochi, Russia's renown coastal and ski resort and the host of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

New flights will be operated to Kirov (Pobeda), Cheboksary (Rusline, Pobeda), Kazan (Alrosa), Makhachkala and Nalchik (Nordavia).

In the upcoming winter season, the home base carrier of Pulkovo Airport Rossiya Airlines plans to increase the number of flights to Antalya (Turkey), Berlin (Germany), Milan (Italy), Munich (Germany), and Prague (Czech Republic), as well as to the Russian cities of Kaliningrad, Mineralnye Vody, Moscow, Murmansk, Samara, and Sochi. The carrier will also continue to operate flights to London Gatwick Airport (UK), launched in the spring 2018.

Air Serbia, Alitalia, Brussels Airlines, and SAS will resume their traditional winter holiday flights. In addition, S7 Airlines will recommence the flights to Salzburg and Innsbruck, operated in the winter of 2017/2018.

Azur Air is planning to perform winter charter flights to Varadero (Cuba), Goa (India), Dubai (El Maktum, UAE), Nha Trang (Vietnam), and Phuket (Thailand). Nordwind has announced flights from St.Petersburg to Nha Trang (Vietnam), Bangkok, and Phuket (Thailand) for its winter charter program.

During the 8 months of 2018, Pulkovo Airport has served 12.2 million people, which is 11.1% more than in the same period of 2017. Domestic passenger traffic increased by 8.2% to 7.3 million people. On international routes, traffic increased by 15.7% to 4.9 million people.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the northern summer season begins on the date of Daylight Saving Time (DST) introduction in European Union countries, which currently always takes place on the last Sunday in March. The northern winter season commences on the date Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends in European Union countries, which currently always takes place on the last Sunday in October. Thus, the IATA winter season 2018/2019 will begin on October 28, 2018, and last through March 30, 2019, inclusive.

Contributed by Pulkovo St. Petersburg Airport