Air Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek) will permanently shift its Moscow operations from Moscow Domodedovo to the newly inaugurated Zhukovsky with effect from July airline CEO, Joldoshbek Bekturganov, has announced.
“We're going to move all of our flights from Moscow’s Domodedovo to Zhukovsky," he was quoted by Central Asian Aero News. "Airfares will be lowered by about 20%. The first test flight is scheduled for June 20 and we will begin flying from there, on a regular basis, from July 1, 2016."
The Kyrgyz national carrier currently runs a 3x weekly Bishkek-Domodedovo service alongside a 5x weekly Osh International-Domodedovo service all of which use B737-300s.
As such, Air Kyrgyzstan is one of four airlines to have announced plans to use Ramenskoye (also known as Zhukovsky) as their new point of Moscow operations. The others include Aviastar-TU (4B, Zhukovsky) and start-up Sky Gates Airlines (U3, Moscow Vnukovo) both of which specialize in cargo operations. Kazakhstan's SCAT Airlines (DV, Shymkent) is also looking to shift its Aktau, Aktobe, and Shymkent operations away from Domodedovo to Ramenskoye.
Russian passenger carrier Alrosa Aviakompania (6R, Mirnyj) has also expressed an interest in using the airfield as its Moscow base over its current Domodedovo facility.
Located 40km from downtown Moscow, Moscow Ramenskoye was to have opened back in March. However, delays in securing its final certification from the Russian authorities delayed the event until May 30.
