One of the most frequently asked questions I get about Russia is, “is it safe to fly?” For many westerners, the Soviet-era notion of dodgy aircraft falling out of the sky has been a persistent – but unfair – stereotype of Russia’s commercial airline industry. The overwhelming reality is that Aeroflot, Russia’s flag carrier, has an excellent safety record, its staff are incredibly professional and its flights almost always arrive and depart when they’re supposed to. An alternative is S-7, a Siberian airline based in Russia’s third largest city of Novosibirsk, with their trademark green aircraft. Likewise, it is an excellent airline with an excellent safety record. The only knock on S7 – and I recognize this is a very personal thing – is that they fly out of Domodedovo Airport (DME) which is almost 60 kilometres south of Moscow. With even a normal amount of traffic, the trip to get there can take up to two hours. Nonetheless, if neither of these two airlines are available, we need to be very careful with the next options. Early on in my assignment here, we flew Saratov Airlines (which used bright orange planes) to Grozny and a few months later, one crashed outside DME killing all 71 people on board. That plane was a Soviet-era aircraft and Russian investigators concluded maintenance had been shoddy. Another time we flew the Sukhoi Superjet, a medium range Russian-made aircraft that has been pushed hard by Russia’s government has a competitor to jets made by Bombardier and Embraer. But that aircraft has also had problems (including a deadly crash in Moscow on a flight from Murmansk). We now avoid those planes too. All in all though, flying in Russia doesn’t have to be a “wing and prayer” experience, as long as you plan appropriately.
