Travel data provider OAG recently published its ‘Busiest Routes 2020’ report. This document examines the world’s most extreme airline routes, with one category being the longest scheduled services. It has found that all of Europe’s 10 longest domestic routes can be found in Russia, but where exactly do they go between?
The top 10 – all over 2,000 miles long
Russia, as well as being Europe’s most populous country, is the world’s largest by surface area. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that all of the 10 longest European domestic routes can be found here. Nonetheless, they still represent a striking contrast to the shortest routes in Europe, all 10 of which are less than 80 miles long.
The OAG report was compiled with data from the calendar year of 2019. It also shows that Russia’s three longest domestic routes also stretch far enough to place 6th, 8th, and 9th in the world’s top 10. North American routes dominate this category.
1) Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky – Moscow Sheremetyevo, 3,639 miles
This mammoth domestic flight connects the Russian capital with the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Sea of Okhotsk, just off the country’s east coast. The route is served by 1,082 scheduled flights a year, operated by Russian flag carrier Aeroflot and its subsidiary Rossiya. Both airlines use Boeing 777 aircraft on the route, which has a scheduled flight time of just under eight and a half hours.
2) Moscow Sheremetyevo – Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 3,585 miles
Just over 50 miles shorter than its first-placed counterpart, this route links Moscow with the island of Sakhalin. This is Russia’s largest island, and it is situated off the country’s south-east coast, just to the north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. Once again, the route is served by Aeroflot and Rossiya Boeing 777 aircraft. The 568 flights a year along this corridor are scheduled to take around eight and a quarter hours.
3) Moscow Sheremetyevo – Vladivostok, 3,457 miles
Using, once again, Aeroflot and Rossiya Boeing 777 aircraft, this route to the far south-east of the country is served by 1,023 flights a year. These are also scheduled to take around eight and a quarter hours. Rossiya is also the name of a train service along the Trans-Siberian Railway along this corridor, which takes a full week to traverse the country!
4) Khabarovsk Novy – Moscow Sheremetyevo, 3,313 miles
Served by 1,053 scheduled flights a year, this route between the capital and the east of Russia is the last in the top 10 measuring over 3,000 miles. Taking around seven and three-quarter hours, passengers have the choice between Aeroflot and Pegas Fly, who utilize Boeing 777 and Airbus A330 aircraft respectively.
5) Moscow Vnukovo – Yakutsk, 2,650 miles
Yakutsk is the capital of the Republic of Sakha, situated in the north-east of Russia. Flights between here and Moscow Vnukovo are operated by Yakutia Airlines, utilizing Boeing 737 aircraft. The scheduled flight time is seven hours or just under, and the route is served by 546 services a year.
The best of the rest
6) Moscow Sheremetyevo – Yakutsk, 2,630 miles
7) Moscow Domodedovo – Chita, 2,552 miles
8) Ulan-Ude – Moscow Vnukovo, 2,396 miles
9) Moscow Domodedovo – Ulan-Ude, 2,381 miles
10) Irkutsk – Moscow Sheremetyevo, 2,272 miles
It remains to be seen what sort of effect the ongoing coronavirus pandemic will have on next year’s figures. That said, Simple Flying reported last month that Russian domestic air travel had made a full recovery. Perhaps, therefore, this is one category whereby the data won’t be quite as drastically different as one might expect.