Three Aeroflot aircraft--one IL96 and two 320s-- on the ground in Salzburg, Austria. Seems like a lot of metal from one airline for such a small but historic Austrian city.
So I looked up the schedule on Aeroflot's web site, and this is what I found:
On Saturdays they have five flights to Salzburg. Three leaving within half-hour of each other! Why is this route so popular for Aeroflot that they have so many flights a day?
vlad1971 From Netherlands, joined Jul 2005, 76 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (2 years 3 months 4 weeks 1 day 2 hours ago) and read 3288 times:
Those are mostly charter flights for people going to ski in Austria . Sometimes you may buy an all inclusive tour including flights and accomodation for 400-600USD . Lots of Russians are using this opportunity to visit prestigeous Austrian ski resorts . If I am not mistaken Austrian Airlines also have 4-5 flights a day on weekends ...
QatarA340 From Qatar, joined May 2006, 1600 posts, RR: 7 Reply 2, posted (2 years 3 months 4 weeks 22 hours ago) and read 3024 times:
Quoting cloud4000 (Thread starter): On Saturdays they have five flights to Salzburg. Three leaving within half-hour of each other! Why is this route so popular for Aeroflot that they have so many flights a day?
I dont mean to sound oqaque or something, but dont they have snow in Russia?
PatrickZ80 From Netherlands, joined Jul 2010, 4 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (2 years 3 months 4 weeks 22 hours ago) and read 2982 times:
It definately is Salzburg, that's for sure. It's written on the stairway cars and in the background there is a small plane from Austrian Arrows (Dash 8 if I'm not mistaking). And behind the IL-96 I can see the tail of a Ryanair plane wich also flies into Salzburg.
Viscount724 From Switzerland, joined Oct 2006, 21464 posts, RR: 24 Reply 5, posted (2 years 3 months 4 weeks 12 hours ago) and read 2411 times:
GVA also gets quite a few weekend ski charters from Russia, apart from LX/SU/FV scheduled flights. Russians are now one of the largest source of foreign visitors to Switzerland, both winter and summer.
flyingalex From Germany, joined Jul 2010, 997 posts, RR: 1 Reply 6, posted (2 years 3 months 4 weeks 8 hours ago) and read 1842 times:
Quoting BMIFlyer (Reply 4): They do, but there are some really good ski slopes in Austria
That, and the ski infrastructure in the Alps is a lot better than most places in Russia. I imagine Sochi will be quite decent after the 2014 Winter Olympics, but until then, the action is in Switzerland and Austria. There are also dozens of shots of Russian airlines at INN, and those three airports - GVA, INN and SZG - seem to get most of the Russian ski traffic.
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Severnaya From Russia, joined Jan 2009, 1390 posts, RR: 1 Reply 7, posted (2 years 3 months 3 weeks 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 1236 times:
Quoting cloud4000 (Thread starter): On Saturdays they have five flights to Salzburg. Three leaving within half-hour of each other! Why is this route so popular for Aeroflot that they have so many flights a day?
Don't forget Transaero from DME, they operate also 3 daily flights in the weekends if i'm not mistaken (among them the 772).
Quoting QatarA340 (Reply 2): I dont mean to sound oqaque or something, but dont they have snow in Russia?
Sure, but snow doesn't automatically enable mountain skiing when you don't have mountains nearby the metropolitan areas such as Moscow or St Petersburg
The nearest ski resorts are in the Caucasus such as Krasnaya Polyana nearby Sochi where the Mountain skiing will be done in during the 2014 Winter Olympics. These resorts often are very expensive for Russians and combined package deals to Austria/Switzerland are often cheaper and the quality of facilities is much more developed there.
Also, maybe surprising for some of you, LED-AER is more far than LED-SZG.
MOW-AER is closer than MOW-SZG, but not much!
Superfly From Thailand, joined May 2000, 38496 posts, RR: 80 Reply 8, posted (2 years 3 months 3 weeks 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 1213 times:
Quoting Severnaya (Reply 7): The nearest ski resorts are in the Caucasus such as Krasnaya Polyana nearby Sochi where the Mountain skiing will be done in during the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Severnaya From Russia, joined Jan 2009, 1390 posts, RR: 1 Reply 9, posted (2 years 3 months 3 weeks 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 1200 times:
Quoting Superfly (Reply 8): How are the ski resorts in the Ural Mountains?
I'm not a big mountain ski fan (I prefer to cross country & nordic skiing) so I don't know much about it.
There are some ski resorts in the Urals as well such as Abzakovo in the Republic of Bashkortostan but the facilities and length of the slopes are just very limited. The Alpine resorts offer just simply better & more.
Mind you, there are close to Moscow & Piter also small skiing slopes, but these are more for 1 day skiing and overcrowded. A lot of fun though!
Superfly From Thailand, joined May 2000, 38496 posts, RR: 80 Reply 10, posted (2 years 3 months 3 weeks 6 days 22 hours ago) and read 1150 times:
Quoting Severnaya (Reply 9): I'm not a big mountain ski fan (I prefer to cross country & nordic skiing) so I don't know much about it.
I was always a downhill, traditional two ski skiier until last year when I tried cross-country up in Yosemite in the California Sierra Nevadas. Fell in love with it then moved to Thailand where there is no snow.
I may check out some resorts in nearby China before the winter is over with.
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