Lufthansa Replace Frankfurt With Munich

The management of Koltsovo airport is going to ask Lufthansa to alter the destination of their flights from Ekaterinburg. Currently, the German airline flies an A319 between Frankfurt and Ekaterinburg. 

The Russians are suggesting that they change this route to Munich - Ekaterinburg. The airport officials believe that, first, this will increase the number of passengers who want to visit the German beer capital, and second, it will result in a shorter flight and increase the number of passengers per flight by 5-10 people. Right now Lufthansa must sacrifice those seats so that it can carry more fuel. During the spring and summer, the German airline flies four flights a week to the Urals, at an average of 80% capacity. 

Koltsovo airport's general director, Evgeny Chudnovsky, told that between January and August of 2010, 1.8 million passengers used the airport, which was 28.7% more than the same period last year. Passenger traffic on international routes increased by 50%, to 686,000 people. 

Koltsovo is expecting new foreign airlines to begin operations there in the future. The low-cost airline flydubai will begin flying between Ekaterinburg and Dubai in October of 2010. It is possible that one of the European low-cost airlines could follow this example, which would affect the prices charged by Lufthansa, FinnAir, and Czech Airlines for regularly scheduled flights to Ekaterinburg. 

Experts also see potential toward the southeast. There is currently regular air travel between Ekaterinburg and Beijing via Ural Airlines and Air China. Perhaps a Thai airline will be interested in the large number of passengers who fly from the Urals to Bangkok and now must do so using charter flights.