OREANDA-NEWS. May 07, 2008. S7 Airlines, Russia’s largest air carrier by number of transported passengers on domestic routes and S7 Tour Company, a subsidiary of S7 Group, are implementing an initiative to expand international and domestic tourism in the regions as part of preparation for the summer season, reported the press-centre of S7 Airlines.

With the goal of optimizing its regional tourism route network, S7 Airlines is strengthening its positions in the most popular international directions—Turkey and Bulgaria—by adding regular transfer flights through Moscow to its traditional direct routes from the regions. S7 Airlines’ summer flight schedule in the tourism directions was specially developed using convenient regular connecting flights from the regions to Moscow and thereafter in all the international tourism directions. Special transfer fares that are lower than the combined fares of the two segments separately are applied to the connecting flights.

“Regular flights as part of travel packages give passengers from the regions wishing to travel to Montenegro, Italy, Turkey, Bulgaria, Tunisia, Greece and other countries the maximum level of service and ideal connections. From Moscow it is possible to travel to practically anywhere in the world. Passengers can choose S7 Airlines business class for their leisure travel,” says Svetlana Antoshkina, S7 Tour’s Chairwoman of the Board of Directors.

During the summer season of 2008, S7 Airlines has increased its transport capacity on flights to the most popular tourism routes: to Turkey by 15% and to Bulgaria by 36%. The increase in the transport capacity is achieved by increasing the frequency of flights and changing the types of airplanes.

Anther important line of business for S7 Tour and S7 Airlines is the expansion of domestic tourism. On 12 May 2008 S7 Airlines introduced an additional evening Moscow-Barnaul flight. Barnaul is the capital of Altai Region. As part of a federal program, it will be the site of a year-round tourism complex equipped with the necessary infrastructure that will be able to provide the entire spectrum of tourism services. It is a special economic zone (SEZ) for tourism and recreation called “Biryuzovaya Katun” (Altai Kray).

In May 2008 S7 Airlines introduced a third daily Moscow-Irkutsk flight. This is associated with the creation of another special SEZ and the expansion of recreational tourism on the coast of Lake Baikal.