Nordwind Airlines Plans to Start Flights Between St. Petersburg and Greece in 2022

Discover the World Greece Director Dinos Frantzeskakis, Athens International Airport Director of Communications and Marketing Ioanna Papadopoulou, Nordwind Airlines Deputy Director General-Commerce Anton Mattis and Nordwind Airlines Head of International Sales Department.

Russian leisure airline Nordwind on Thursday announced plans to strengthen its presence in Greece and launch flights from St. Petersburg to Athens and Thessaloniki in 2022.

Headquartered in Moscow and based at Sheremetyevo International Airport, the low cost airline began its first weekly direct flights to Greece in summer 2021.

“This year was a year of changes for us as we opened to quite a few new destinations and started flights to Europe, including operations to Greece,” Nordwind’s Deputy Director General-Commerce, Anton Mattis, said during a company event in Athens.

Since June, the Russian airline has been operating weekly direct flights between Athens and Krasnodar (connection to Moscow available in Krasnodar) and between Thessaloniki and Mineralnye Vody. The airline also flew a seasonal route connecting Rostov with Thessaloniki in the summer.

Nordwind Airlines Deputy Director General-Commerce Anton Mattis.

“This start was quite successful and quite productive for us and we have big plans related to Greece for next year as we would like to open St. Petersburg and fly to Athens and Thessaloniki,” Mattis said, adding that there are also thoughts to launch a direct flight to Greece from Kazan.

“This is a beautiful city and I think it will be a good opportunity for Greek people to see new routes, new destinations, new cities in Russia,” he highlighted.

Moreover, Mattis said the goal is to increase the frequency of their flights to Greece starting from April 2022.

On her part, Ioanna Papadopoulou, the director of communications and marketing of Athens International Airport (AIA), welcomed Nordwind’s “vote of confidence” to the Athens’ market.

AIA Director of Communications and Marketing Ioanna Papadopoulou and Nordwind Airlines Deputy Director General-Commerce Anton Mattis.

Having recently attended the World Routes conference in Milan, Papadopoulou said the message for 2022 with regard to travel is rather optimistic.

“We had a good summer and the airlines are telling us that the prospects are good for next year,” she said, underlining that the industry suffered greatly during the last two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We are looking forward to airlines coming back to Athens and we welcome Nordwind… It is a new airline to us and we hope that it will be be successful in the Athens market,” she said.

Nordwind’s schedule for Athens and Thessaloniki

Krasnodar-Athens schedule

Until the end of October, the Krasnodar-Athens flight will be operating every Monday on the airline’s Boeing 737 aircraft.

Flights from Krasnodar depart at 14:45 and arrive in Athens at 17:20. The return flight from Athens departs at 18:20 and arrives in Krasnodar at 20:55.

After October and until the end of March 2022, flights from Krasnodar will depart every Monday at 12:30 and arrive in Athens at 14:15. The return flight from Athens will depart at 15:15 and arrive in Krasnodar at 18:55.

Mineralnye Vody-Thessaloniki schedule

Until the end of October, the Mineralnye Vody-Thessaloniki flight will be operating every Wednesday on the airline’s Airbus 321 aircraft.

Flights from Mineralnye Vody depart at 09:20 and arrive in Thessaloniki at 12:05. The return flight from Thessaloniki departs at 13:05 and arrives at Mineralnye Vody at 15:40.

After October and until the end of March 2022, flights from Mineralnye Vody will depart every Wednesday at 12:25 and arrive in Thessaloniki at 13:45. The return flight from Thessaloniki will depart at 13:05 and arrive in Mineralnye Vody at 15:40.

Established in 2008, Nordwind Airlines flies scheduled and charter flights. Its network now includes more than 200 destinations. The airline flies to 75 cities in 17 countries and operates some 650 flights weekly.

The airline’s modern fleet comprises 33 aircraft and includes the following types: Boeing 737, Boeing 777, Airbus A330 and Airbus A321.

Nordwind was recently awarded with the Skytrax World Airline Award in the Best Carrier of Russia to Resort Destinations 2021 category.

In 2019 Nordwind carried more than 7.5 million passengers. This year, following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on travel, the airline managed to carry some 4.5 million passengers.

Discover the World Greece is the GSA (General Sales Agent) of Nordwind Airlines for Greece.