Aeroflot Ups Services To Delhi Amid Continued Global Sanctions

On March 26th, Russian air carrier Aeroflot announced that it would be increasing its weekly flights to India. The weekly flight increase will affect its route between Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Alexander S. Pushkin International Airport (SVO) and Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL), increasing the number of weekly flights along this route from four to seven.

The increased flight frequency comes shortly after the Indian government decided to allow more Russian flights enter the country each week. While the airline is still heavily affected by sanctions, in India, at least, it can attempt to rebuild its presence.

Increased flight frequency

Aeroflot has been operating flights between SVO and DEL with its Airbus A330 four times weekly. Each of these A330s carries 293 passengers giving the route a maximum weekly passenger capacity of 1,172. While offering over 1,000 seats per week between the two cities is substantial, it is insufficient to fill existing demand. The Indian government sees this and knows that allowing the airline to operate more weekly flights to India will boost its travel economy. Aeroflot is also aware that the increase in flight frequency will give its business a well-needed boost.

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

It has opted to push another aircraft onto the route to take advantage of this weekly flight service increase. The Airbus A330 will continue to operate the route four times per week, but the three weekly additions will be operated on a Boeing 777. The 777 will offer 410 seats, meaning that the airline will be doubling the number of seats it offers weekly between the two cities. The increase in passenger capacity will significantly benefit the airline as it looks to take advantage of what it sees as an underserved route.

Each flight along this route will also carry a substantial amount of cargo. The airline believes that the increase in flight frequency will greatly benefit its cargo sector almost as much as its passenger sector. The Head of Cargo at Aeroflot, Oleg Korolev, stated,

“These daily flights will give a boost to tourism as well as the cargo supply chain. Due to increasing trade between the two countries, the Moscow-Delhi route is one of the long-established and high-demand routes…In addition, the cargo supply chain will be more effective,”

Reducing sanctions

The increased weekly flight service will substantially increase the airline’s operations in India. Even considering this, the airline continues to operate only a portion of the flights it did before the pandemic and war in Ukraine. When the pandemic hit the world in early 2020, international air transit operations disappeared seemingly overnight. This greatly affected Aeroflot’s operations between Russia and India. Over the next couple of years, the world began to recover, and international air travel resumed. Things were looking bright for Aeroflot until the Russian military entered Ukraine last February.

Following the invasion, many countries began imposing sanctions on Russia. While Aeroflot is not known to have played any part in the war, it has been caught in the political and economic crossfire as many countries have restricted or prohibited Russian airlines from entering their country. India was one of the countries that chose to limit the number of weekly Russian flights it lets in. Until yesterday, it only allowed 52 weekly flights per airline to operate to and from Russia.

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

The Indian government recently opted to raise the maximum number of weekly flights permitted to 64. While the future is uncertain, it is likely that if the increase in weekly flights gives the Indian air transit economy a large enough boost, the government may choose to increase this number once again in the near future.

What do you think of Aeroflot increasing flight frequency along this route? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: Business Standard