Russia - Flying into Moscow, which airport?

All else being equal, if I'm flying into Moscow should I care whether it's into SVO or DME? If it matters, my hotel is near Red Square. Is one nicer/more convenient and user-friendly/more amenities for premium cabin travelers? Public transportation to/from is not a consideration.

All else being equal, if I'm flying into Moscow should I care whether it's into SVO or DME? If it matters, my hotel is near Red Square. Is one nicer/more convenient and user-friendly/more amenities for premium cabin travelers? Public transportation to/from is not a consideration.

I would rank it like this SVO-D->DME->SVO-E->->->->->SVO-F

Terminal D at SVO is very nice, served by Aeroflot and some other airlines (SAS and LOT are two). The lounges there are quite nice.

DME is a modern airport and will be a nice place to fly into and out of. It tends to be/feel crowded. Most *A airport and BA use DME.

SVO-E is not bad, used by Air France and KLM

SVO-F is a time machine trip back to the early 80s. Most of the lounges are very dated. Delta, Turkish, a few Aeroflot flights and some others still use F.

All else being equal, if I'm flying into Moscow should I care whether it's into SVO or DME? If it matters, my hotel is near Red Square.

They are both quite a way from the heart of Moscow, so don't worry about your hotel location much, its only a few minutes difference. DME is slightly better for distance IIRC when in private cars.

Just avoid Terminal F and you'll be fine.

Just avoid Terminal F and you'll be fine.

Ugh, the SVO option is on DL, so guessing that involves F...

Actually, on the SVO site, it's showing that Delta has moved to D. I'm not sure when it happened, but that's pretty amazing news.

They are both quite a way from the heart of Moscow, so don't worry about your hotel location much, its only a few minutes difference. DME is slightly better for distance IIRC when in private cars.

A couple of minutes playing with Google maps would show SVO is significantly closer to Red Square. (And in my experience immigration and baggage claim at DME ihas been sheer hell most of the time).

Delta has indeed moved to D. They use check-in counters 40-47 if my memory serves me. Just to the left of customs.

A couple of minutes playing with Google maps would show SVO is significantly closer to Red Square. (And in my experience immigration and baggage claim at DME ihas been sheer hell most of the time).

Why has it been such a hassle? Does flying up front change that at all?

A couple of minutes playing with Google maps would show SVO is significantly closer to Red Square. (And in my experience immigration and baggage claim at DME ihas been sheer hell most of the time).

Interesting. I've used both and found the transit much faster by private car between Moscow center and DME. Public transit wise, I prefer SVO though, but it is closer to my preferred hostel. I've had pleasant immigration and baggage experiences at both, ymmv.

SVO is significantly closer to the city, but also tends to be more severely affected by traffic. SVO to Red Square area can be as little as 30 min from SVO. DME to the city center is almost always one hour. By train SVO is 35 min, and DME 40-45 min. As the airports (and transport links) are on opposite sides of the city, the final destination may significantly influence one's preferences.

Why has it been such a hassle? Does flying up front change that at all?

If you depart DME in J, there's a separate immigration/customs/security channel you can use. In case it's airline-specific, I've taken advantage of this while flying SQ and BD. On arrival, though, you're with the hoi polloi - and if there's a couple of incoming flights from Central or South East Asia, as is usually the case at DME, you're in for a long wait. And believe me, you don't want to get stuck behind an A340-ful of Vietnamese guest workers.

They now have the separate channel for business class in SVO-D as well.

Lately, in DME the separation has been AFTER customs. The entry before customs is closed for "technical reasons" and you head off to the left once you reach passport control for the separate immigration and security checks.

If you depart DME in J, there's a separate immigration/customs/security channel you can use. In case it's airline-specific, I've taken advantage of this while flying SQ and BD. On arrival, though, you're with the hoi polloi - and if there's a couple of incoming flights from Central or South East Asia, as is usually the case at DME, you're in for a long wait. And believe me, you don't want to get stuck behind an A340-ful of Vietnamese guest workers.

So what arrival time would help me best avoid that?

They are both quite a way from the heart of Moscow, so don't worry about your hotel location much, its only a few minutes difference. DME is slightly better for distance IIRC when in private cars.

Yeah but the problem with DME is that past the MKAD you've only got one choice of road. Whereas with SVO if there's a backup on Leningradskoe (a rare occurrence :rolleyes::p) you can always go "through the forest" to Dmitrovskoe Shosse.

Personally I much prefer SVO-2 over DME. It's smaller in scale and hence faster, and D and E are both equally fine. Boarding areas in DME can ressemble rugby scrums, and by far my worst ever experience in ~ 35 or 40 times entering RF (in terms of chaos at passport control) was at DME. Of course I think my SVO-DME ratio is around 32-3 or so.

DME's one advantage though is KofeManiya... ;)

I would prefer SVO, but not the F terminal...

I still dislike F, but I do have to admit that so many flights have been transfered to D that getting out of F has never been easier. I flew in from Warsaw on Saturday and was through passport control and out with my luggage in about 30 minutes. It was sweet!

SVO is significantly closer to the city, but also tends to be more severely affected by traffic. SVO to Red Square area can be as little as 30 min from SVO. DME to the city center is almost always one hour. By train SVO is 35 min, and DME 40-45 min. As the airports (and transport links) are on opposite sides of the city, the final destination may significantly influence one's preferences.

Both on different sides of Moscow might I add.

Second bad traffic to SVO, right past the ring road, near the shopping mall (name escapes me).

I would just train it. If you have lots of luggage, allow extra time to get to SVO during Moscow Rush hour.

Terminal D at SVO is pretty nice. Flew into terminal D October last year with Aeroflot from Oslo (they moved that flight to E now for some reason) and that was a very pleasant experience. It was no queue for the non Russian passport line so I could just walk up to the counter and the officer just stamped the migration card and the passport and let me in. No questions asked. Actually the officer seemed abit bored! Including the walk from the plane I was in the arrival hall in 15 minutes or so (just hand luggage). Same thing on the return, the only thing was that I had to go to a counter for the boarding pass because the self checkin machine was out of paper and when I tried on another machine I just got error messages, but no queue at the counter either. Well I think I was just lucky I guess, but I liked the terminal although it seemed still a little bit unfinished with empty duty free store space. You have to take off your shoes at security there, but they provided blue plastic bags to use through the checkpoint. Quite nice hehe.

Those booties (blue plastic foot covers exist at DME). In the US, people go barefoot, which is what I did.

All the local Russian's were putting them on though. I thought that was odd (vis a vie what is typically done in the US)

My personal preference is VKO - it is brand new and feels huge (I think it 3 or 4 times the size of DME). As they have clearly been less successful than DME or SVO in luring carriers in (I believe the eason being they are also used by the Russian Government; so once Putin fancies to go somewhere warm for a weekend, they would shut down the place and delay everything for couple of hours screwing up schedules for the day) it feels empty.
Not an option for you I reckon as there are very few (if any) international flights to this airport.
And with plastic booties - I still remember the time when they had those in LHR too (immidiately after introducing this ridiculous procedure of taking boots off at the security). I think they only lasted for a month or so as it must have been a major expense. Provided Russian airports handle only a fraction of passenger traffic LHR does, they still can afford it.