OREANDA-NEWS. Representatives of Pulkovo airport took part in the 9th European regional forum of aviation routes development “Routes Europe 2014”, which took place in Marseilles since the 6th of April till the 8th of April 2014. This event became the largest regional meeting of the specialists in aviation sphere in Europe.

Staff of the Northern Capital Gateway LLC, the operator of Pulkovo airport, held meetings with 22 airlines and 12 airports, and with tourist authorities of different countries and regions of Europe.

European aviation community was very interested in Saint-Petersburg and this led to a tight schedule of negotiations with the representatives of the airport. The perspectives of the new directions opening from Saint-Petersburg were discussed at the meetings. A number of airlines, such as Finnair, Vueling and others, operating regular flights to Pulkovo, showed an intention to increase number of flights from Saint-Petersburg. An arrangement was made with Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany airports about the joint participation in attraction of new airlines on desired routes. Currently the geography of flights from Pulkovo to Europe is very vast and amounts to more than 60 directions. The airport continues rapid development of route network: the airport is trying to establish direct flight connection with such cities as Brussels, Malaga, Stuttgart, Lyon, Manchester, Florence, Hannover, Marseilles, Turin and etc.

Due to the modern infrastructure of the new centralized terminal the possibilities of transfer traffic development through Pulkovo airport increase and more convenient connections appear. We remind that last year the geography of flights from Saint-Petersburg increased on 20 new directions, 12 new airlines launched regular flights from Pulkovo.

New airlines will appear in summer season 2014: airline TAP Portugal will start operating flights to Lisbon, Germanwings - to Dusseldorf, Sky Bishkek - to Osh, Moskoviya - to Astrahan. Airline Montenegro Airlines will restart operating flights to Podgorica. Flights to Erevan (Air Armenia), Vilnius (Polet), Kursk and Petrozavodsk (Pskovavia), Kirov and Saransk (Russline) will be operated for the first time in a summer period; all these airlines started operating flights during the winter season 2013/2014. Flight geography from Pulkovo airport will be essentially expanded. Flights will be operated on the following directions: Nizhnevatorsk, Novy Urengoy, Tyumen, Simferopol (UTair), Palermo (Air One), Milan (Alitalia), Alicante (Vueling), Anapa (Alrosa), Minsk (Rossiya), Larnaca, Tel Aviv and Yuzhno Sakhalinsk (Transaero), Rostov-on-Don (Urals airlines), Novosibirsk (Yakutia). There will be an increase of flights on many popular tourist directions.