newstodate.aero
SEP 26, 2005 (newstodate): The route by Danish carrier DAT from Copenhagen to Kaliningrad remains on hold, but the airline keeps monitoring the situation.
DAT started operating four times weekly with ATR-42 aircraft to Kaliningrad on August 19, 2003, but traffic was later reduced and, finally, suspended.
-We see two main obstacles to reopening the traffic to Kaliningrad. One is lack of a code-share partner, and the other is Russia's prohibitive visa policy, says Jesper Rungholm, DAT CEO.
-The route will obviously need a code-share partner to feed traffic, but SAS does not, for various reasons, wish to enter an agreement with us, and this restrains the business travel volume.
-We could easily provide flights on low cost levels, but this is of no avail when visitors to Kaliningrad still have to pay exhorbitant fees for a Russian visa, and this cuts down potentials for an otherwise profitable tourism traffic, he says.
-As we are also now seeing a high rate of utilisation of our aircraft on the new route between Copenhagen and Bornholm, leaving little excess capacity at Copenhagen, we keep the Kaliningrad-route on hold but we would be happy to reopen traffic when conditions permit, and we still maintain our station manager at Kaliningrad, says Mr Rungholm.
Besides DAT that has suspended its services, LOT is the only non-Russian online carrier at Kaliningrad.
DAT started operating four times weekly with ATR-42 aircraft to Kaliningrad on August 19, 2003, but traffic was later reduced and, finally, suspended.
-We see two main obstacles to reopening the traffic to Kaliningrad. One is lack of a code-share partner, and the other is Russia's prohibitive visa policy, says Jesper Rungholm, DAT CEO.
-The route will obviously need a code-share partner to feed traffic, but SAS does not, for various reasons, wish to enter an agreement with us, and this restrains the business travel volume.
-We could easily provide flights on low cost levels, but this is of no avail when visitors to Kaliningrad still have to pay exhorbitant fees for a Russian visa, and this cuts down potentials for an otherwise profitable tourism traffic, he says.
-As we are also now seeing a high rate of utilisation of our aircraft on the new route between Copenhagen and Bornholm, leaving little excess capacity at Copenhagen, we keep the Kaliningrad-route on hold but we would be happy to reopen traffic when conditions permit, and we still maintain our station manager at Kaliningrad, says Mr Rungholm.
Besides DAT that has suspended its services, LOT is the only non-Russian online carrier at Kaliningrad.