BUSINESS

Budget Airline Comes Closer

By Irina Titova

The St. Petersburg Times

For The St. Petersburg Times St. Petersburg residents are expected to take advantage of budget flights to Germany from Lappeenranta next year.

Popular budget airline Ryanair will begin flights from the Finnish town of Lappeenranta to Dusseldorf, Germany, on April 1 with fares as low as 5 euros, the Irish airline announced last week.

The Repin train from St. Petersburg to Lappeenranta will provide connections to the twice weekly flights.

Stephen McNamara, head of communications at Ryanair, said that the airline believed that the catchment areas for the two airports offered good prospects and the opportunity to indirectly tap into the Russian market.

“Our target group is very broad,” McNamara said. “We’re interested in anyone who has a form of payment and a pulse.”

McNamara said that Ryanair is interested in introducing direct routes to Russia, but that it has not yet received any satisfactory offers from Russian airports.

Sergei Korneyev, head of the northwestern branch of the Russian Tourism Union, said that the flight is clearly aimed at Russian tourists and that it’s no coincidence that the route’s timetable allows the Repin train to provide a convenient link from St. Petersburg to the flights.

“It’s very likely that the flight will be popular, particularly during the economic crisis when everyone is trying to save money,” Korneyev said.

Many people in St. Petersburg already take budget flights to Europe from the airports of Riga, Tallinn and Helsinki, Korneyev said.

“Such trips may not be very convenient because of the transfers, but there’s no doubt that they allow you to save money,” he said.

Budget airlines usually fly to smaller airports that are cheaper to work with, allowing them to lower prices, Korneyev said.

Finland’s authorities have been looking for ways to boost Lappeenranta’s economy more active, and this may be an opportunity to do so, Korneyev said.

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