Translated material
Now in Chicago
American Airlines began flights from Domodedovo
American Airlines opens today a non-stop flight from Moscow (Domodedovo Airport) to Chicago. Flights will be operated six times a week on a Boeing 777-200 aircraft in a three-class configuration. In anticipation of the launch flight to Russia, the company introduced a Russian-language section on its website. The cost of the cheapest ticket Moscow-Chicago-Moscow for the second half of June starts from 18 thousand rubles. with taxes and fees. American Airlines is the second company to operate flights from Domodedovo to the USA. In March of this year, Singapore Airlines began flying from Moscow to Houston.For American Airlines, the world's largest airline by number of aircraft (969 along with regional subsidiary American Eagle) and passengers carried (119 million in 2007), recent years have been challenging. As the airline's senior vice president Craig Krieger said yesterday, after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and until 2005, the AMR holding, which owns American Airlines, American Eagle and several other affiliated companies, suffered losses. The worst year was 2002, when AMR lost $3.5 billion. In 2006 and 2007, it made a profit of $231 million and $504 million, respectively. But the first quarter of this year again became unprofitable. American Airlines has decided to cut domestic U.S. traffic by 10% in the fourth quarter, Mr. Krieger said.
International destinations, according to Mr. Krieger, on the contrary, will expand. It was in this context that American Airlines decided to open up the Russian market. “Taking into account the data on the development of the American and Russian economies, as well as the increase in mutual mobility of Russian and American tourists, we came to the conclusion that now is the right moment for this,” Mr. Krieger told Vremya Novostei.
He also emphasized that the company is counting not only on Muscovites, but also on clients from regions heading to the United States. The head of the Domodedovo airport complex, Sergei Rudakov, noted the advantages of Chicago Airport, which gives travelers access to the Midwest of the United States and other areas of North and Latin America.
Turkish Airlines plans to fully or partially transfer its Moscow flights from Sheremetyevo Airport to Domodedovo, head of the company Temel Kotil told INTERFAX . “The question of how many flights to transfer to Domodedovo is now being decided,” he noted, adding that the Russian route is very important for the company. According to him, Turkish Airlines currently operates 50 flights a week to Russia and 200 to Germany. “We expect that there will be more flights to the Russian Federation than flights to Germany,” Mr. Kotil said.