THY, Russia’s UTair join forces to offer more destinations

Turkish Airlines (THY) and Russia’s UTair signed a deal Wednesday that opens up more destinations for both airlines and allows their passengers to benefit from cheaper fares with a single ticket.

As part of the deal inked by THY CEO Temel Kotil and UTair CEO Andrey Martirosov in the central Russian city of Tyumen, THY customers will be able to purchase tickets to all of the destinations UTair flies to in Russia from THY offices.

UTair passengers will have the opportunity to travel to the some 190 destinations THY services worldwide via Turkey. Baggage will be automatically transferred between flights with no inconvenience to passengers. They will also pay some 20 percent less for all THY-UTair code share flights than if they had bought separate tickets from the two airlines.

“This is a win-win situation. Passengers will now save both time and money. And our companies will have more passengers,” Kotil said following the signing ceremony.

Turkey and Russia mutually stopped requiring visas for stays of up to 30 days in April of last year in the latest move to improve trade and tourism relations. Turkey’s exports to Russia totaled some $6 billion in 2011, whereas Russia’s exports, mainly of energy, to Turkey neared $24 billion last year. In the area of tourism, however, the balance is heavily tilted toward the Turkish side. Nearly 3.5 million Russians visited Turkey in 2011, while some 70,000 Turks traveled to Russia last year.