It is not just local airlines that are benefiting from the growth of the Russian air travel market, some foreign airlines are also betting strongly on their Eastern routes.

In addition to tapping a large and relatively less price-sensitive market, Western European airlines can leverage time zone differences to optimize aircraft rotations by flying East during the night and returning to the West in the early hours of the morning.

Vueling its betting strong on the Russian and Ukrainian markets. If last summer passengers traveling between the Catalan capital and Moscow could choose from up to four daily flights, Vueling is now launching four new routes in that direction: Barcelona to the Russian cities of Kaliningrad and Kazan as well as to Dontesk and Kharkov, in Ukraine. The Barcelona to Saint Petersburg route, in turn, is becoming year-round with two weekly flights.

The flight to Kazan is quite remarkable, since at nearly 4,000km, it might be about the longest in Vueling's network!