Russia, China To Introduce Regular Direct Sakhalin-Harbin Flights From January

Russia’s Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Airport, the main airport for the Sakhalin Islands in the Russian Far East, has signed a cooperation agreement with China’s Heilongjiang Airport Management Corporation, based in Harbin, the capital of China’s Heilongjiang Province, near to the border with Russia.

The agreement envisages the development of air transport between Sakhalin and China.

The signed document particularly implies increasing the frequency of flights and the number of air carriers on the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk-Harbin route, as well as promoting these locations as tourist destinations. The Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Airport and Heilongjiang Corporation will analyze the strengths and weaknesses in working with passengers and outline timeframes for settling logistics and passenger movements.

Ruslan Stepanets, the CEO of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Airport has been quoted as saying that the first large group from China is expected in January, when participants in the fourth Russia-China Winter Games arrive in Sakhalin. The event will include ten winter sports, all on snow and ice.

Stepanets said “Going forward, we plan to boost transportation capacity in this direction. Collaborating with companies in China should allow Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Airport to adapt services for foreign air travelers, and launch new services and flights for our passengers.”

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Airport is the base for Aurora Airlines. The airport boosted passenger service 12% year-on-year to 1.4 million travelers in 2023. Eight carriers collaborate with the airport, operating flights to eleven other cities in Russia, eight settlements in the Sakhalin region, as well as to Beijing.

A new passenger terminal launched operations at Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Airport in August 2023, becoming the largest in area in the Far Eastern Federal District at nearly 47,500 square meters, with capacity to handle five million passengers per year.