Leaping_Deere

S7 fly from DME to URC but it's a bit sporadic, so it does have a OW flight, albeit patchy.

I do think that central asia/west china is going to become one of the next big growth regions so Finnair might pull a masterstroke and be the ones to lead the way in flights to this region.

OH-LGG

No. Siberian rights are to/from Japan, Korea, China.

Why (exl. money) would anyone take marsu cage from India to HEL and then continue to US? Absolutely crazy idea.

intuition

Oh, you are right. I did search before I posted and did not see any flights ex URC. Now I see there is S7 schedule to both DME and OVB, with plenty onward connections to continental Europe

URC is a 22 million area IIRC but city is only 3,5 million, so much smaller than the other cities targeted by AY. I know very little about URC but I have a hunch it could be something big.

r2d2

Vauramo must assume that AY would get more Siberian overflight rights if needed (as they have this far) and that European LCC's would not be granted these rights.

Leaping_Deere

I think you are right, Ive started fly to URC regularly for work. The region is going through a lot of development in energy and agriculture and it's driving a lot of growth.

At the moment I have been flying to ICN and getting Koreans direct flight to URC. Its a long way around but I can work it in with other work, but I will have to look at new options in winter when the Korean flights stop. S7 only fly 3 times a week and once a week in winter IIRCand its has some awful layovers or extras segments through Germany when flying Ex LHR so I will probably end up flying to Hong Kong and crossing to SZX or possibly mainland china and getting an internal .

Flying international into URC is a pain because of the extra security checks when departing, its the most stringent I've had anywhere in the world

Courmisch

URC has rather stricter visa requirements than the rest of China, so it would get basically inbound traffic. As for outbound traffic, I gather it is one of the poorer regions, so ...

oliver2002

China southern has service to URC from DXB, LED and SVO. Air Astana has service to URC from ALA and TSE. Using these you can be un URC from LHR in under 9 hours. https://www.flightconnections.com/

URC is a pian to get to even from inside China...

Leaping_Deere

None of them are OW which is my go to for status reasons. I did almost go on PIA via RWP just for the experience.

I have other clients in Hong Kong so I think I will fly into there and make my way round that way, its slower than going through the middle of asia so to speak but I'll kill two birds with 1 and a half stone

CeruleanBlue

Trav1970

Steve_Hun

As long as you are not sitting at the very back of the bus. Regular Y's leg space is painfully small for a 193cm tall guy. MCE is already a nice (Y) experience and anything above that is great on those planes!

ffay005

I don't know about that. Yeah, the current A321 with its hard seats and small pitch are terrible and even in exit row, a six-hour flight to LPA is very uncomfortable. But if they equip the A321 with lie-flats in J and proper seats in Y, with a few rows of Y+, then I don't think an 8-hour flight to China would be substantially different from a widebody. I suppose the biggest difference would be limited overhead bin space in Y, where seating is 6-abreast compared to 8-abreast on the A330 with double the bin space.

oliver2002

Todays standard A321 can carry 219 pax in all Y config if you install slim galleys and space flex lavs. While this should be sufficient for a hop to N. Africa from Europe, for low costers to KEF or a transcon in the US, I doubt the Europe China market will accept such product.

intuition

Independent just published a story about how the dreamliner isn't revolutionising the long thin routes, but the narrow bodies are.
Nothing substantial in the article, but perhaps an interesting read.

ffay005

I wonder if RVN-PEK is one of the routes AY is considering. It's even shorter than HEL-PEK, there's probably close to zero J demand and positioning the plane to and from HEL would work nicely with a narrowbody.