Expo Excitement: Aeroflot & Emirates Launch St Petersburg-Dubai Flights

Aeroflot is launching and Emirates is resuming flights between St Petersburg and Dubai this October, coinciding with the launch of the Expo 2020 international exhibition, which runs from 1st October 2021 to 31st March 2022. The airlines’ current schedules indicate that they will be offering 11 weekly flights between them.

Emirates will resume flying to St Petersburg on 8th October. Photo: Emirates

Emirates starts first

Coinciding with the opening of the Expo 2020 exhibition in October, Emirates will resume flying between its hub, Dubai (DXB), and St Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport (LED).

Passengers traveling with Emirates by 31st March can visit Expo free of charge. This includes passengers transferring in Dubai with a stopover of six or more hours.

To start with, in the first week of operations, these flights will operate three times weekly: on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Then, in the second week, another flight will be added on Wednesdays for the route to become a four-weekly service.

Then, in the third week of operations, the route will be boosted by one more rotation on Thursdays until it finally becomes a daily service in its fourth week of operations, beginning on Monday 25th October.

Once the flights start running daily, they will operate as follows:

• EK174 departing DXB at 09:10, arriving in LED at 14:15
• EK175 departing LED at 16:45, arriving in DXB at 23:45
• EK176 departing DXB at 15:45, arriving in LED at 20:50
• EK177 departing LED at 23:15, arriving in DXB at 06:15

EK174/EK175 runs on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. EK174/EK175 runs on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

All flights will be operated by a Boeing 777, and Emirates is selling flights for this route well into 2022.

Rossiya will be flying for Aeroflot on this route. Photo: Getty Images

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Rossiya will launch flights next

Then, from 15th October, Aeroflot will also start flying between Dubai and St Petersburg.

Flights will be operated by Russian airline Rossiya four times weekly on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays as follows:

• Flight SU 6710 departing LED at 10:00, arriving in DXB at 17:00
• Flight SU 6711 departing DXB at 18:10, arriving in LED at 23:20

All flights are scheduled to run with Boeing 737 aircraft.

Aeroflot’s fares are currently consistently cheaper than Emirates’ ticket prices on the route. However, Emirates offers checked baggage and free refunds for its tickets, while Aeroflot’s cheapest ticket fare comes without luggage.

Rossiya is operating these flights on behalf of Aeroflot. Photo: Getty Images

Aeroflot and Rossiya are close partners

Rossiya, as Aeroflot’s subsidiary, is working as a close partner with Aeroflot when it comes to fleet flexibility.

For example, Rossiya will take on all of Aeroflot’s Sukhoi SJ100s. Many of them have already been transferred.

The move will see Aeroflot’s fleet shrink to 182 aircraft, consisting of the A320, B737, A330, B777, and A350 aircraft types. Aeroflot plans to increase passenger traffic by 30% and drop its fares by 30% by 2028 as part of its ambitious 30/30 plan, which will see it become a five-star airline.

What do you think of the news that Emirates is resuming and Aeroflot is launching flights between St Petersburg and Dubai to coincide with the launch of Expo 2020? Let us know what you think of this story in the comments below.

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