Airlines exploring different ways to tap the growing Russian market

Colourful Russian airline S7 might soon have new partners, or at least this is what this article suggests. Since S7 is the largest domestic operator (and 4th overall) of a growing market, a number of foreign investors might be interested in the 25.5% equity stake that the government is now putting up for sale, including its current Oneworld partners.

While an equity investment in an established airline might be a way to tap the Russian air travel market, others prefer to go on their own, like UAE's low cost carrier flydubai, that is adding several destinations in Southern Russia: Krasnodar, Rostov, Volgograd and the resort town on Mineralnye Vody, as well as some additional flights to Ukraine too. This expansion follows the good results flydubai got on its existing routes to Kazan, Samara, Ufa and Yekaterinburg.

One way or another, there is something much simpler that foreign airlines can do in order to get more business in Russia: translating their websites to the Russian language...and this is what some are doing: American Airlines, Swiss, British Airways and, of course, the new arrival to the Russian market, Easyjet, they all now have Russian language websites!