Vladivostok by plane · Vladivostok by plane
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Vladivostok by plane
Vladivostok by plane
Vladivostok International Airport (IATA: VVO, ICAO: UHWW) is located near Artyom, some 50 km (31 mi) off the city center, has two airfields with four paved runways, and is able to receive most major types of aircraft, except very large ones such as Boeing 747 or Boeing 777. The main terminal (domestic) recently underwent a major renovation, making it the most modern airport building in the Russian Far East. The international terminal, which is located just next door to the domestic one (in fact, they share the same parking), is very small and usually crowded, but as Vladivostok is slated to receive the APEC summit in 2012, the planning of further upgrades are underway. Currently, the main connection from the airport to the city is via local and shuttle buses (running to the Vladivostok bus station) but don't count on them if your flight arrives late in the day. If your flight arrives late, you could take your chance with a metered taxi, or negotiate with an informal "taxi" - starting price is a ridiculous 2500 Rubles - pay no more than 1000.
The airport's anchor airline is Vladivostok Air that serves a majority of its available domestic and international routes. It's the largest airline in the Russian Far East; it operates relatively modern fleet which primarily includes Airbus A320 and Tupolev Tu 204-300 types of aircraft and offers something like European short-haul type of service on all flights.
The busiest destination is Moscow. On average, there are 3-5 flights per day. Flights are much more frequent in summertime (June - September) due to heavy passenger traffic. It is recommended to book an itinerary at least one month in advance during that season in order to get a reasonable fare. Principal carriers to operate this route are Aeroflot Russian Airlines , Transaero , and S7 Airlines .
Other destinations are barely served daily, usually service is less frequent. Besides Moscow, domestic destinations include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk and many others. International flights connect Vladivostok with Beijing and Harbin in China; Niigata, Toyama and Osaka in Japan; Busan and Incheon in South Korea; Bangkok in Thailand; Hanoi in Vietnam; and Air Koryo also offers a weekly flight to Pyongyang. Korean Air operates this route 5 times a week (in 2009) and offers flights from the continental U.S. via a connection in Seoul-Incheon. Completion of the new international terminal in Haneda airport and subsequent increase in its capacity may lead to the opening of a direct scheduled flight by ANA to Tokyo, which is now served only by chartered flights to Narita airport. Start from 2 Nov, there will a direct flight from Hong Kong by S7 Airlines.
Unfortunately, due to scarcity of the airlines operating from the airport a lot of destinations are monopolized and tickets are offered at exorbitant fares. For example, realizing its almost monopolistic position to offer connections, Korean Air bargains a fare starting from US$800 for 1.5 hours plane ride to Seoul. Vladivostok Air bargains similar extortionate prices for tickets to its Japanese destinations for the same 1.5 hours plane ride. The only real competitive destination is Moscow where a lot of airlines compete with each other, and sometimes really hot deals can be found. There are some hopes that aforementioned openings of a ferry line and additional flights may lead to increased competition and falling prices, but it remains a thing to see in the future.
As of July 2011, most of the 50+ kilometre road to the city is disrupted by roadworks - rather than repairing in sections, they have chosen to dig it all up at once. Expect delays - buses take 90-120 minutes, taxis at least 1 hour.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Vladivostok
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Vladivostok - updated May 2024
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Vladivostok Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.