Air links between Cyprus and Russia: the present and the future

The long-awaited low-cost carrier, or is it ‘Avianova’ all over again?

Several reasons are cited as to why there are no budget airlines in Russia, and if they do appear, they do not last long. Among these, one stands out as the main one. Let’s quote a Rosaviatsiya official speaking to a manager at the now-bankrupt ‘Avianova’: ‘What sort of business is this: ferrying tramps around for a few kopecks? Now that’s a proper business class ticket for 300,000 roubles!”

Clearly, ‘the well-fed cannot understand the hungry’, and the official has forgotten that 80 per cent of his compatriots have an annual household budget equivalent to the cost of a business-class ticket.

It should be recalled that in October 2011, Avianova suspended ticket sales for its flights. One-way fares with the Russian low-cost carrier started at 250 roubles. For example, the cost of a return ticket from Moscow to Gelendzhik started at 1,500 roubles if purchased one month before departure, which is comparable to the prices charged by European budget airlines.

Whilst our Russian airlines, with the support – or rather, the connivance – of interested officials at the Ministry of Transport, are ‘holding their ground’ and doing everything in their power to prevent the emergence of budget airlines, the Ukrainian authorities have nevertheless yielded to ‘common sense’.

From Donetsk to Cyprus

From March 2014, Wizz Air Ukraine (a subsidiary of the Hungarian-Polish low-cost carrier Wizz Air) will operate flights from Donetsk to Larnaca twice a week.

It should be noted that the Ukrainian low-cost carrier, which began operations in 2007, specialised mainly in domestic flights, operating routes from Kyiv to Odesa, Simferopol, Kharkiv and Lviv.

A year later, in early 2008, Wizz Air Ukraine operated its first international flight from Kyiv to London.

Currently, passengers can fly with the Ukrainian low-cost carrier:

• from Kyiv to Cologne, Venice, Hamburg and Dubai;
• from Lviv to Milan and Dortmund;
• from Kharkiv to Warsaw;
• from Donetsk to Larnaca (from 30 March 2014).

The price of a flight from Kyiv to Larnaca is not yet known, but there is no doubt that it will be in line with the prices charged by European budget airlines.

For example, if you were to buy a ticket with a Ukrainian low-cost carrier on the Kyiv–Budapest return route for the end of November 2013, it would cost the passenger 64 euros.

From Europe to Cyprus 

Today, you can fly to Cyprus from Europe using the services of three low-cost carriers: the Irish airline Ryanair, the British airline EasyJet and the German airline Air Berlin. Ticket prices for all these budget carriers are roughly in the same price range.

For example, with Ryanair, you can fly:

• from Cyprus to Milan and back for €119;
• from Cyprus to Brussels and back for 91 euros;
• from Cyprus to Manchester and back for €178;
• from Cyprus to Rome and back for €113;
• from Cyprus to Stockholm and back for €114.

From Russia to Cyprus

A comparison of Russian and European airfares is rather disheartening. You can fly from Russia to Cyprus at the following prices:

• from St Petersburg to Cyprus and back for €460 (Lufthansa via Berlin);
• from Novosibirsk to Cyprus and back for €672 (Aeroflot via Moscow);
• from Yekaterinburg to Cyprus and back for €612 (Aeroflot via Moscow);
• from Perm to Cyprus and back for €602 (Aeroflot via Moscow);
• from Volgograd to Cyprus and back for €650 (S7 Airlines via Moscow);
• from Omsk to Cyprus and back for 1,000 euros (Aeroflot via Moscow);
• from Chelyabinsk to Cyprus and back for €980 (Aeroflot via Moscow);
• from Samara to Cyprus and back for €850 (Rossiya Airlines via Moscow);
• from Nizhny Novgorod to Cyprus and back for €410 (Greek Aegean Airlines via Athens);
• from Kazan to Cyprus and back for 720 euros (German airline Lufthansa via Berlin);
• from Rostov-on-Don to Cyprus and back for €620 (Greek Aegean Airlines via Athens);
• from Ufa to Cyprus and back for €590 (Germany’s Lufthansa via Berlin).

It should be added that the ticket prices of the main airlines connecting Cyprus and Russia — Aeroflot and Cyprus Airways — are so similar that it seems as though their pricing policies are regulated from a single office.

The only difference lies in the availability of connecting flights: only Aeroflot offers flights to Cyprus from virtually any major Russian city via Moscow.

During the peak tourist season, leading tour operators specialising in Cyprus offer package holidays that include a flight, hotel, transfer, insurance, meals and, sometimes, excursions. The cost of a flight to Cyprus included in a package holiday is almost always 15–25 per cent cheaper than if purchased directly from the airline. For most tourists from Russia, there is no alternative; they have to buy package holidays from tour operators. These operators, in turn, make huge profits by buying blocks of tickets from airlines for the entire summer season at reduced prices, and by earning extra money from the sale of hotel rooms and tickets for excursions.

Can we become ‘budget travellers’?

The issue of establishing Russia’s own low-cost carriers or allowing European budget airlines into Russia has been actively discussed within the Russian government this year. One proposal is to create a Russian ‘budget carrier’ based on Aeroflot.

It is too early to talk about the results. However, there is hope that a new low-cost carrier will indeed emerge, without repeating the sad story of the first two Russian budget airlines – Avianova and Sky Express. We would like to believe that, in the near future, we will be able to fly to Cyprus from any Russian city for no more than Europeans pay to fly there.