Air Malta will be increasing its seat capacity to and from Russia by 50 per cent in summer, the airline said this afternoon.

It said it is committed to float over 82,700 seats on its Russian routes to St Petersburg and Moscow's Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo airports.

This was announced the airline’s chief commercial officer Philip Saunders at the ITB fair held in Berlin, one of the leading European travel trade fairs.

Mr Saunders said that following strong demand from Russia, the airline seized the opportunity and will, this summer, be operating 92 additional flights to the Russian airports.

"This season we expect to generate over 7,000 more return passengers than last summer generating new tourism opportunities between the two countries," he said.

During the peak of summer Air Malta will be operating an average of seven weekly flights to Moscow's Domodedovo with flights departing Malta every Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Two daily flights will be operated every Friday and Saturday. The airline will be operating two weekly flights to Moscow's Sheremetyevo every Monday and Thursday and two weekly flights to St Petersburg every Tuesday and Saturday with a second frequency on Saturday during the peak.

Air Malta’s flights to Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport are code-shared with Aeroflot.

Air Malta started charter operations to Moscow and St Petersburg in June 1996. The market has grown substantially over the past 10 years and has since generated almost 370,000 passengers.

Last year Air Malta carried 50,000 scheduled passengers to/from Russia, representing an increase of +16% over the previous year.

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