Moscow - Orenburg

[Chris P Bacon]

Doing the return trip from Moscow to Orenburg with Orenair next Monday/Thursday. Anyone travelled with this airline or done the route, have any information of what I can expect?

[Aksai Oiler]

Yes many times when on my way to Aksai in Western Kazakhtan - this was before they got the Boeings.

What to expect - arrival in Orenburg and not a lot else - used to fly on Tu-154

[WHBM]

The airline is, like many similar in Russia, the old Orenburg Directorate of the Soviet-era Aeroflot, split off and run independently. Again, like most it ran on with its inherited Tupolev fleet for many years, but now is moving on to western types. Too bad !

I always imagined Orenburg to have a Germanic population by its name, apparently not so, but you find they make a lot of semi-charters from Orenburg to various German cities in the summer; I've come across them in Hanover and Hamburg. Apart from these flights, their main trunk is the Moscow run you are taking.

Orenburg city for a while in Soviet times was named Chkalov, after the Russian pioneer aviator of the 1930s, who did the pioneer flight over the pole from Moscow to Washington State, USA (and who was killed in a test flight shortly aterwards). Every Russian metro in the major cities has a Chkalovskaya station commemorating him, so I'm not sure why he fell from grace in Orenburg. If you get a chance, see if there are still any statues to him around the place. The Soviets loved statues.

[rmac]

They claim to have 12 B737 in the fleet, but also 4 TU154 and 4 TU134.

My bet is that the Moscow route will be B737.

I used to use the route over a decade ago on the TU154, inexplicable middle of the night flight. Those were the days...............not !

[Boss Raptor]

All Boeing 737 fleet, -400/-500/-800's, maintained on a maintenance/tech services/component support contract from Aeroplex in Hungary where heavy checks are done - think nearly 6-8 years now the Boeings have been there and make up most of the fleet

Îðåíáóðãñêèå àâèàëèíèè (http://www.orenair.ru/flot/)

Nothing really to do with past era soviet Orenburg Directorate, was sent up as an independant carrier some years later and the Aeroflot connection is a very tenuous one

[Chris P Bacon]

Many thanks for all the replies. I will let you know how it has changed, when I get back at the weekend.

Chrispy.