The title says it all. Why is Emirates still flying to DME? Can anyone fly there these days? What other major airlines still flying to Russia?

because there is money to be made still....

tonytifao wrote:

The title says it all. Why is Emirates still flying to DME? Can anyone fly there these days? What other major airlines still flying to Russia?

why they can't flying to Russia?

Turkish are also still flying into VKO. I believe some smaller players are still flying into Moscow as well, such as Ethiopian, Royal Jordanian and Egyptair.

tonytifao wrote:

The title says it all. Why is Emirates still flying to DME? Can anyone fly there these days? What other major airlines still flying to Russia?

Because the UAE government has not banned flights to Moscow, and as said above there is currently money to be made.

Gemuser

Add AirArabia, AirSerbia, ArianaAfghan, Etihad, Gulfair, Pegasus, UzbekistanAirways and various airlines from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Kazakhstan to the list

There are still a fair few operating into Russia

El Al - Tel Aviv to DME
Etihad - Abu Dhabi to SVO
Emirates - Dubai to DME & St Petersburg
Qatar - Doha to SVO
Gulf Air - Bahrain to DME
Air Arabia - Sharjah & Abu Dhabi to DME (multiple daily)
FlyDubai - Dubai to VKO (multiple flights daily)
Iraqi Airways - Baghdad to VKO
Mahan Air - Tehran to VKO
Iran Air - Tehran to SVO & St Petersburg
Syrian Air - Damascus to VKO
Egyptair - DME (From CAI & HRG)
Air Algerie - Algiers to SVO
Royal Air Maroc - Casablanca to DME
Royal Jordanian - Amman to DME
Ethiopian - Addis Ababa to DME
Air Serbia - Belgrade to SVO & St Petersburg
Turkish Airlines - VKO & DME (from IST & ATY)
Capital Airlines - Qingdao to SVO
Air China - Beijing to SVO
China Southern - Shenzhen to SVO
Hainan Airlines - Beijing to SVO
Sichuan Airlines - Chengdu to St Petersburg

Plus majority of all CIS carriers (Uzbekistan, Air Astana, Somon, AZAL etc)

Because the route is a cashcow for Emirates!

Why wouldn’t they fly to Moscow, they’ve been flying there for years. I believe it’s multiple A380s a day. Turkish is multiple 777s a day. Lucrative market.

What is they need spare parts at the destination ?

hongkongflyer wrote:

tonytifao wrote:

The title says it all. Why is Emirates still flying to DME? Can anyone fly there these days? What other major airlines still flying to Russia?

why they can't flying to Russia?

Absolutely. The embargo on flights to Russia (like other economic sanctions) is a decision taken mainly by Western countries. This is by no means an unanimous and worldwide decision.

Aither wrote:

What is they need spare parts at the destination ?

If it's that critical, they can fly parts in on the next flight. With 17x weekly flights, they won't have to wait too long.

Fuling wrote:

Aither wrote:

What is they need spare parts at the destination ?

If it's that critical, they can fly parts in on the next flight. With 17x weekly flights, they won't have to wait too long.

Are there any issues around sanctions on this ? In 2019, a Norwegian B737 flying from Dubai to Oslo had to land in an emergency in Iran. It took 2 months for them to get permission to fly in the part(s) needed and do the repair so the stranded aircraft could fly out

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Fuling wrote:

Aither wrote:

What is they need spare parts at the destination ?

If it's that critical, they can fly parts in on the next flight. With 17x weekly flights, they won't have to wait too long.

Are there any issues around sanctions on this ? In 2019, a Norwegian B737 flying from Dubai to Oslo had to land in an emergency in Iran. It took 2 months for them to get permission to fly in the part(s) needed and do the repair so the stranded aircraft could fly out

EU carrier, thats it.

bobdarvey wrote:

hongkongflyer wrote:

tonytifao wrote:

The title says it all. Why is Emirates still flying to DME? Can anyone fly there these days? What other major airlines still flying to Russia?

why they can't flying to Russia?

Absolutely. The embargo on flights to Russia (like other economic sanctions) is a decision taken mainly by Western countries. This is by no means an unanimous and worldwide decision.

That's not usually how embargoes work. I do not know the exact details here but normally embargoes apply to any company violating the rules of the sanctions. A 3rd country is free to not obey the embargo/sanctions but that usually means they would suffer penalties when doing business in the country that imposes the sanctions.
For example: EU says anyone selling airplane parts to Russia will be banned from EU airspace. EK can chose: Do I want to sell airplane parts to Russia or do I want to fly to the EU?

cedarjet wrote:

Why wouldn’t they fly to Moscow, they’ve been flying there for years. I believe it’s multiple A380s a day. Turkish is multiple 777s a day. Lucrative market.

Certainly lucrative if you see what Russians are paying for a flight out of the country to avoid being conscripted. All flights are full. Tickets are sold for around $1,500 one-way out of Russia, meaning if they fly an A380 (615 seats) into Russia it gets them $992,500 in revenue. That's almost a million dollars per flight! Okay, the costs still have to come off but it's definitely lucrative. And they're helping Ukraine by taking possible Russian conscripts out of Russia. Okay, that's the political side of it so I won't get into that any further but the benefits are obvious.

The short answer is: Because they can. I want to avoid getting into politics, but the simple fact is that not every country has piled on to the "sanction Russia" bandwagon. The U.S. and other western countries can't tell Emirates or any other airline where they can and cannot fly, except for their own countries of course. I'm no expert on the current state of sanctions, but apparently western countries have not forced Emirates or other airlines to choose between flying to Russia and flying to their countries; they could, but they haven't.

UAE loves Russia.

Money.

Since when have human rights been top of mind for many countries in the Middle East (I live there, I would know). If the government tells your airline to fly, even though the aircraft is not insured in Russian airspace, then you fly.

ArcticFlyer wrote:

The short answer is: Because they can. I want to avoid getting into politics, but the simple fact is that not every country has piled on to the "sanction Russia" bandwagon. The U.S. and other western countries can't tell Emirates or any other airline where they can and cannot fly, except for their own countries of course. I'm no expert on the current state of sanctions, but apparently western countries have not forced Emirates or other airlines to choose between flying to Russia and flying to their countries; they could, but they haven't.

Well said. The rest of the world are not obligated to obey what USA (and alliance)’s demand

As far as I am concerned most or a lot of those carriers should not be flying to Russia. They make a lot of money from flying to the EU, UK and US. Put a stop to that flying and see what happens. If everyday Russians, whom I like, had all those sun destinations and onward connection stopped, we might see a resolution to the aggression against Ukeaine. I assume those carriers are making a fortune?!

Fliplot wrote:

As far as I am concerned most or a lot of those carriers should not be flying to Russia. They make a lot of money from flying to the EU, UK and US. Put a stop to that flying and see what happens. If everyday Russians, whom I like, had all those sun destinations and onward connection stopped, we might see a resolution to the aggression against Ukeaine. I assume those carriers are making a fortune?!

Most of those countries you are talking about used to be colonies and/or have been on receiving end of western armies. Trying to strongarm them now to support West only makes them hating west more. There is a good reason why they did not join West in sanctions. Try to talk to people from those countries.
PS: Ukraine could not be forced by Russia not to join NATO. Because sovereignty. Only Ukraine can decide that. And now you want to violate sovereignty of Emirates? That is how it looks like to them.

jaro76 wrote:

Fliplot wrote:

As far as I am concerned most or a lot of those carriers should not be flying to Russia. They make a lot of money from flying to the EU, UK and US. Put a stop to that flying and see what happens. If everyday Russians, whom I like, had all those sun destinations and onward connection stopped, we might see a resolution to the aggression against Ukeaine. I assume those carriers are making a fortune?!

Most of those countries you are talking about used to be colonies and/or have been on receiving end of western armies. Trying to strongarm them now to support West only makes them hating west more. There is a good reason why they did not join West in sanctions. Try to talk to people from those countries.
PS: Ukraine could not be forced by Russia not to join NATO. Because sovereignty. Only Ukraine can decide that. And now you want to violate sovereignty of Emirates? That is how it looks like to them.

Let’s not pretend EK is still flying to Russia because the UAE likes their politics. It’s all about the money they are making hand over fist.

Turkey and the UAE are playing both sides and making a fortune doing it.

jetblueguy22 wrote:

jaro76 wrote:

Fliplot wrote:

As far as I am concerned most or a lot of those carriers should not be flying to Russia. They make a lot of money from flying to the EU, UK and US. Put a stop to that flying and see what happens. If everyday Russians, whom I like, had all those sun destinations and onward connection stopped, we might see a resolution to the aggression against Ukeaine. I assume those carriers are making a fortune?!

Most of those countries you are talking about used to be colonies and/or have been on receiving end of western armies. Trying to strongarm them now to support West only makes them hating west more. There is a good reason why they did not join West in sanctions. Try to talk to people from those countries.
PS: Ukraine could not be forced by Russia not to join NATO. Because sovereignty. Only Ukraine can decide that. And now you want to violate sovereignty of Emirates? That is how it looks like to them.

Let’s not pretend EK is still flying to Russia because the UAE likes their politics. It’s all about the money they are making hand over fist.

Turkey and the UAE are playing both sides and making a fortune doing it.

That s called being neutral. The smart thing to do!
It is an European war. Nothing to do with Middle East
Or Asia. Same can be said about Middle East conflicts when far away countries remained neutral maintaining cordial relationships with all parties involved.

Emirates expanding Moscow route to 1x777 and 2xA380 *per day* from the beginning of next month. I guess they are making plenty of money
https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/221006-eknw22dme

In addition AI (and EK, QR, TK) flies through Russian air space to US cities while UA cannot. The same reason, the sanctions are unilateral from Europe and US/Canada, it is not an UN mandate. US has sanctions to many countries in the world, especially Iran, but all EU carriers fly through Iran and Iran air flies to Europe. In fact El Al of Israel, which is a close ally of US, flies to Russia

The most bonkers thing about air service to Russia is the dozens a day flights of Turkish Airlines and the newly spawned Turkish flag carriers of convenience, that transit EU airspace all the way up to Lithuania before taking a hard right into Belarus and onward to Moscow airports. Same route reversed homeward to Turkey. Russian carriers do travel to Turkey destinations via Sochi and the toe of the Black Sea.
Knowing that Turkey is a NATO member, but NOT an EU member, why, why, why, do the EU countries not politely invite Turkey to use non EU air space to overfly while doing their lucrative trade with Russia? Meanwhile Turkey's flights originating or ending at any EU destination can continue as usual.
Russia would object no doubt, as their routes into Moscow in particular seem to be selectively streamed by carrier and rigidly routed away from the eastern Ukraine border by quite a distance.
Turkey's NATO membership I look at as by convenience rather than conviction by all members. Which leads me to see the strategic weakness of the EU routed Turkish airlines. What better way for Russia to accomplish hourly surveillance of EU activities around Ukraine's western border. As primitive as a go-pro camera speed taped to the belly of an aircraft! Not to mention sophisticated electronic listening devices in a carry-on bag.
Would you as a land owner or lessee want either friend or foe to continually be transiting your domain to supply goods (many of which will reduce your well being) of a known to you undesirable, unstable, unpredictable belligerent a few houses away from yours?
No sanctions needed, no loss of business, just Russia has to accommodate Russia only routing into Moscow and St. Petersburg. Greater NATO and EU countries avoid the risk of Russian hourly surveillance on their own turf (air).
Does the answer to all the imponderables always have to be MONEY?

jetblueguy22 wrote:

jaro76 wrote:

Fliplot wrote:

As far as I am concerned most or a lot of those carriers should not be flying to Russia. They make a lot of money from flying to the EU, UK and US. Put a stop to that flying and see what happens. If everyday Russians, whom I like, had all those sun destinations and onward connection stopped, we might see a resolution to the aggression against Ukeaine. I assume those carriers are making a fortune?!

Most of those countries you are talking about used to be colonies and/or have been on receiving end of western armies. Trying to strongarm them now to support West only makes them hating west more. There is a good reason why they did not join West in sanctions. Try to talk to people from those countries.
PS: Ukraine could not be forced by Russia not to join NATO. Because sovereignty. Only Ukraine can decide that. And now you want to violate sovereignty of Emirates? That is how it looks like to them.

Let’s not pretend EK is still flying to Russia because the UAE likes their politics. It’s all about the money they are making hand over fist.

Turkey and the UAE are playing both sides and making a fortune doing it.

Agree. It is about money too. And thanks to EU sanctions, EK, Turkey etc have a gold mine there. But let's not pretend that selling arms to Saudi Arabia is something else. This is pot calling kettle situation.