Two Russian airlines received new permission to fly to Mexico. On October 20, the Federal Air Transport Agency of Russia (Rosaviatsiya) granted permission for flights from St. Petersburg to Cancun by the airline «Ikar», and from Moscow to Mexico City — Nordwind Airlines. Dedicated flight frequency for each route — 7 times a week, in other words daily.
Tolerance — This is the airline’s right to fly to the chosen destination, but not an obligation. Many airlines «collect» permissions, but it doesn’t come to flights. Flights become a reality when the route is truly of high commercial interest, and the airline has the technical option to operate it.
The airline «Ikar», also known as Pegas Fly, like Nordwind, serves the guest flows of the state tour operator Pegas Touristik. In addition, Nordwind has permission to fly to Cancun not only from St. Petersburg, but also from other Russian cities, which it does not use and it is not known whether it will use it. The Pegas Fly fleet provides flights across the Atlantic. The fleet includes two long-haul Boeing 777-200ER, designed to carry 440 passengers, which were previously operated by Nordwind. Aeroflot flew one of these planes back in 1998. Russian tour operators like to use aircraft with maximum capacity on long-distance flights. There is no business class on these planes, only economy.
Nordwind received permission to fly from Moscow to Mexico City. This is not an easy route, given its length and the high altitude of Mexico City Airport. The same Turkish Airlines fly to Mexico City with a technical stop in Kanun, and Emirates — in Barcelona. And this is not a guest country destination. It is not known why Nordwind needs flights to Mexico City.
Nordwind and another Russian airline, Azur Air, are already flying from Moscow to the Mexican resort of Cancun, serving the travel flows of large tour operators. Both airlines are taking the number of frequencies allowed by the Russian Operational Headquarters to combat coronavirus for flights to Mexico, namely 3 per week. From November 18, Aeroflot also begins flying to Cancun, operating 3 flights a week. At the same time, there is still no decision from the Operational Headquarters to increase the number of permitted frequencies for flights to Mexico.