Direct route between St Petersburg, UAE to open in November

A direct air route between St. Petersburg and the United Arab Emirates will open in November, Emirates Airline Senior Vice-President Richard Vaughan told a Tuesday press conference.

He said the flights would be daily starting from November 1, and Airbus jetliners would be used on the route. St. Petersburg will become the second destination of the airline in Russia. It came to the Russian market in 2003 with five flights to Moscow per week. Emirates Holidays, a subsidiary of the airline, which organizes deluxe tours to Dubai and other destinations of the air carrier, will also come to the St. Petersburg market. SkyCargo, another Emirates division, will offer new opportunities to the Russian market of cargo transportation.

"Flights to Dubai will broaden the routes, which start from the Pulkovo Airport, and offer passengers convenient travels to the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia and Oceania," Pulkovo Airport operating company head Sergei Emdin told the press conference.

In the opinion of St. Petersburg Vice-Governor Yuri Molchanov, the direct flights will promote cooperation. "The United Arab Emirates joined the top ten investors of Russia last year. We are confident that the arrival of the Emirates to the market will strengthen business contacts between northwestern Russia and the UAE and enlarge tourism," he said.

The UAE, in which Dubai is one of the largest emirates, has been a very popular destination of Russian tourists and investors in the past decade. More than 80,000 Russians visited the UAE in the first quarter of this year only, which was 27% more than the year before.