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The reason why Moscow is cheap is partially geopolitical. Airlines are not particularly fond on their planes getting shot down by military.
by StreamBright 8y ago
The reason why Moscow is cheap is partially geopolitical. Airlines are not particularly fond on their planes getting shot down by military.
- kenneth 8y agoMaybe flying a Russian airline is a good way to insure you won't get shot down flying over Russian / Ukrainian airspace (which is hard to avoid if you're flying Europe to Asia)
- isostatic 8y agoMajority of Europe-Asia (southwest, south, southeast) flights route via Turkey/Iraq/Gulf or Romainia/Black Sea/Georgia/Turkmenistan -- especially since MH17. Those heading to East Asia tend to fly over northern Russia, well away from Ukraine Here[0] are planes avoiding Ukraine [0] http://imgur.com/EbNXLpXl.png http://imgur.com/EbNXLpXl.png
- kenneth 8y agoUkraine is a small country, easy to avoid. The GP was talking about Russia in general though, which is much harder to avoid. The traffic to East Asia is far greater and more important than that to Southeast.
- isostatic 8y agoThe last time a plane was shot down over Russian airspace was KE007 in 1983 International flight paths over Russia are a large source of money for the country, Russia isn't going to shoot down any airlines.
- Yizahi 8y agoThe fact that russian army shot down MH17 from occupied territory doesn't change much really.
- isostatic 8y agoCorrect. That was over Ukraine, and airlines responded by not routing over an active warzone If a plane were shot down over Siberia, planes would reroute away from Siberia, meaning Russia loses overfly money. Unless the scenario is that Russia comes out and says "we'll shoot down non-Russian airlines", in which case Russian airlines are no longer allowed to fly to other countries, and Russia is cut off from the rest of the world, and we go back to routing via Iran or Alaska (perhaps non-stop). It's an extra 1300 miles from London to Tokyo via those routes, 1200 miles to Beijing, 1000 to Shanghai, and only 600 miles to Hong Kong / Chengdu It'd be annoying, but not even as bad as when it was the USSR. Russia meanwhile would collapse economically.
- viraptor 8y agoI'm actually interested in how much did that affect any flight plans in the long term. Do any airlines use another route of going over potential conflict territories is the most economic? I know there was a lot of rerouting immediately after the incident.
- StreamBright 8y agoThe avoided Ukrainian/Russian airspace after the incident. https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/american-reroutes-asia-flights-to-avoid-russian-airs-447709/ https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/american-reroutes...
- eptcyka 8y agoAeroflot is cheap, and other Russian airlines. Flying through Moscow with anything but Russian airlines is not as cheap as one would expect. The reason is that Moscow has decided to limit the amount of permits that would allow an airline to operate within it's airspace to one per country. Flying over Russia would be the best choice when flying between Europe and Asia cost wise if not for the limited availability and cost of the permit. And please, don't be allured to Aeroflot due to the cheap flights, it's not an experience worth having.
- jayalpha 8y agoAeroflot is one of the best airlines. Good service Fair bonus miles Super cheap dog transportation One of the most modern fleets Very cheap tickets. Not sure why your experience was so bad. By the way, the stock performance reflects my points. They must be doing something right and they pay dividends.