It seems that Qatar and Eithad aren’t seeing as much cash as they had before in Russia, with the announcement that both airlines are to slim down their operations to Moscow.
Firstly let’s look at Etihad Airways who have canned their planned deployment of a Boeing 787-9 to Moscow, and is planning to reduce its daily flights from three flights a day to two flights, to be operated by Airbus A321/A320 aircraft from the Eithad fleet.
These will be operated as EY65/68 (Airbus A321 service) and EY63/64 (Airbus A320) between Abu Dhabi and Moscow Domodedovo, and goes into effect from 29th March.
Fellow Middle Eastern carrier Qatar Airways has made its cuts, with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner service switched over to an Airbus A320, and the other service it operates to remain as an A320 operated service.
Both QR231/QR232 and QR229/QR230 will be operated with narrow body aircraft, with 787 service terminated on the 17th February.
It seems as the money has walked away from Russia, so are the big aircraft with the newer amenities. Whilst the products are reasonable in these smaller aircraft, they won’t be as nice as was deployed on the 787s (or planned to be deployed).
Certainly, smaller airlines are cutting services as money has vanished – but seeing these two of the Middle Eastern retreat slightly isn’t what I’d call a positive sign…
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