Hi,

we are travelling with aeroflot form CPH to Novosibirsk with transfer iin SVO. Doo we need to pick up our luggage in SVO? Any hints on how to transfer from international to domestic in SVO? Both flights are with Aeroflot and on the same ticket.

Yes, you'll need to get your bags and clear customs before checking right back in for the onward flight. When you get your bags do not go out the doors that lead to the arrivals hall of the airport. Instead, get your bags and walk towards the glass wall that, as you come down the escalator from immigration, is on your right. There's a customs lane there (go Green) you can pass through and then go immediately to the check in desk for onward domestic flights. Drop off your bags, check in, get boarding passes, and then you'll exit to your left. Go up two levels on a lift or escalator and you can go through security out to the gates to check in for the OVB flight. You'll never leave the building you arrive in. Very easy and straightforward.

PM if you care to what brings you to Novosibirsk. It's always nice to know what draws others out here.

Do you know if I can transfer visa free at Novosibirsk (like LHR-DME-OVB-PEK)?

I know DME has visa free transit.

As DME-OVB is presumably a domestic sector, I think the question is not whether DME and OVB individually allow visa-free transit, but whether Russia's transit without visa (TWOV) rules allow domestic sectors. Looking at Timatic (eg: via KLM's Travel Documents and health advice page), the normal rule is that pax must 'remain in the [international] transit area (airside) or on the aircraft' and I can't see any exceptions that would allow domestic sectors, so I suspect it's not possible...

Suggest you check with your airline...

You can transit OVB without a visa if both your inbound and outbound flights are international (not true for your routing - DME-OVB is domestic) and the connection is under 4 hours (if it's slightly more - check with your airline if this rule is strictly enforced).

In addition I believe many passports have a 24h transfer visa free where you can be landside, and if the timing is right, I assume you can add domestic segment?

Depends on your citizenship and your luck. With a US/Canadian/EU passport your chances of being denied boarding for the flight into Russia are close to 100%.

What is your source of information for transit without visa (TWOV) in Russia allowing pax to go landside?

Looking at Timatic (which is what most airlines will look at when deciding whether to let you board at your point of origin), TWOV is indeed available in Russia for 'holders of onward tickets for a max transit time of 24 hours'. However, the standard TWOV rules still apply to this, and these rules:

• Define TWOV as 'Passing through an international transit area of the airport in order to board a connecting (or to proceed by the same) flight, without entering the country (i.e. clearing immigration).'
• Require that 'unless stated otherwise, passengers wishing to TWOV must ... remain in the transit area (airside) or on the aircraft.'

(emphasis added)

Some countries do have exceptions that allow TWOV to include going landside - but I can't see anything in Timatic that would allow this for Russia. I haven't transited DME, but I have done international TWOV at SVO - and I can't see how you'd get on a domestic flight there, without going landside.

Of course, if Russia's TWOV rules did allow going landside, then it shouldn't be a problem to take a domestic flight in that time (unless the TWOV exception excluded that).

However, to take a domestic flight, I suspect you would need a transit visa (see VFS Global if you're in the UK; transit visas valid for 3 days.)

TWOV in Russian airports definitely does not allow pax to go landside. However, there are some countries whose citizens do not need a visa to enter Russia (many ex-USSR republics, South Korea, Argentina, Israel, etc.) and possibly there are a few that can get a visa on arrival (I know none, though).

To the very best of my knowledge and experience, no you will not be able to.

Wise counsel down thread abounds.

At SVO, it used to be possible for overnight transit passengers to stay in special guarded floors of an airport hotel, where they could get food by ordering room service. They would be taken to and from the airport in special vehicles without ever entering Russia. I don't know whether this system is still in operation. [BTW, the "transit hotel" wasn't cheap and there was no choice.]

I probably mixed up with China where this is possible on the 24h visa free transfers.

Indeed - for China apparently it is allowed. Timatic shows TWOV is available in China for 'holders of onward tickets for a max transit time of 24 hours' (same as Russia) and the standard TWOV rules are referenced, but China (unlike Russia) has an additional exception 'Transit incl. multiple stops within China, with a total transit time of max 24hrs is permitted' (with various further restrictions for certain airports and nationalities). (Slightly OT, but note in China the 72hr TWOV option available to some nationalities in some big cities requires arrival and departure from the same city - which implies that domestic flights are not allowed in combination with the 72hr TWOV...)

Interestingly, Saudi Arabia (which generally seems to have very strict visa requirements) also allows appears to allow two transit points inside Saudi Arabia (with a max transit time of 18hrs), as long as flights are all on SV.

However, for both China and Saudi Arabia, these are exceptions to the standard TWOV rules. As Russia doesn't have such an exception, domestic sectors don't seem to be posible.