Desperate: Aeroflot Sets Up Sochi International Hub

In March, it was announced that Aeroflot would be suspending international flights. The airline will soon be bringing back international flights, but they will look nothing like pre-pandemic.

Aeroflot’s new Sochi international hub

Tickets are on sale for the international flights that will begin on April 7, 2022. The airline will fly to 17 destinations. The countries will include Armenia, Egypt, Israel, and Turkey.

The flights will be focused on transit passengers, and in particular those traveling from Moscow, Saint Petersburg, etc.

Rossiya Airlines is a subsidiary of Aeroflot. Rossiya will be using Russian-built Superjet 100s for these flights, with 10 of them expected to be based at the airport. The planes were transferred over to the carrier's subsidiary as part of a transformation plan that was announced in 2020.

The airline will adjust its network based on how these routes do.

Aeroflot’s interesting logic for a Sochi hub

Aeroflot will no longer be flying A350s to Miami, but you can still fly a Superjet to Aktobe. Why is Aeroflot bringing back international flights in this way?

Aeroflot suspended international flights for a couple of reasons.

How does that explain the start of international flights by Aeroflot?

• The Sukhoi Superjets are built in Russia and aren’t owned by foreign leasing companies, so clearly Aeroflot feels it can fly these planes without risk of them being seized internationally, especially since the countries getting flights are largely allies of Russia
• The challenge is that the Sukhoi Superjet isn’t exactly a very capable plane, and has a range of just ~1,800 miles
• Sochi is in south of Russia, and most of the airspace open to Russia is to the south of the country, so this lets the airline operate to these destinations within the range of the aircraft; for example, Sochi to Cairo is ~1,030 miles, while Moscow to Cairo is ~1,800 miles, with the latter being beyond the practical range of the Sukhoi Superjet

This will work for a while, but there is a major challenge in the long run. Many of the parts for the Superjet are from other countries. Russia won't have access to many spare parts because of sanctions.

Over time the fleet will get smaller and the airline will have to use some planes for spare parts.

Bottom line

Rossiya will resume international flights in early April, flying to 17 destinations in six countries. The airline is setting up a hub in the Russian city of Sochi and will fly Superjets to countries without sanctions against Russia.

The logic is that the Superjets are not being leased from foreign companies. Since it is closer to many of the destinations that will be served, setting up a hub in Sochi makes sense.

What do you think about Aeroflot resuming international flights?