Getting to Novosibirsk

Direct Way

One may get to Novosibirsk by plane without flying through Moscow or Saint-Petersburg. The international airport Tolmachevo is located eighteen kilometers to the west of the city. Nowadays, it is a large comfortable airport which hosts international flights as well as those to some cities of the former USSR. The majority of such flights are operated by S7 Airlines. Apart from it, there is a wide choice of charter flights to seaside resorts in summer.

International Flights
Regular flights: Bangkok (by S7, Domodedovo airlines and Transaero), Dubai (S7), Beijing (S7 and Haihan Airlines), Seoul (s7), Urumchi (s7, China Southern), Frankfurt (s7), Dublin (s7, since 2008), Almaty (Kazakhstan, S7 Airlines since 2009), Prague (planned to be relaunched 18 Sep 2009), Kyiv (AeroSvit, since may 2011).
Charters: Goa (Transaero), Deli (LIICOM), Denpasar (Domodedovo airlines), Colombo (LIICOM), Munich/Munchen (s7), Phuket (s7), Sanja (s7), Tianjin (s7), Hurghada (s7), Sharm el-Sheikh (s7), Saloniki.

Tolmachevo Airport.

Tolmachevo Airport.

If there are no direct flights to Novosibirsk from your country, then you may get to the capital of Siberia via Moscow. There are two ways you can do it: by train or by air.

The cheapest option is to buy a ticket to an economy class carriage called "Ïëàöêàðò" [pluts-‘cart]. The price of one-way ticket of such kind is 2,158 rubles. However, travelling in an economy class carriage, which does not have any doors separating one compartment from another, may be tough even for many local citizens. That is why it is highly recommended that you choose another option. A separated compartment which has doors and locks and which accomodates four people will cost you from 5,500 to 8,500 rubles for a one-way trip from Moscow to Novosibirsk. The price very much depends on the date of departure and on the speed of the train. Finally, a one-way ticket in a luxury car costs 10,000 up to 17,000 rubles. Such compartments are more comfortable - they accommodate two people, and some extraservices are provided by the transporting company. These prices are actual for July 2007, but the information at our website will be updated as the prices change.

The latter option is really rewarding because passengers travelling along the Trans-Siberian Railway have an opportunity to acquire a firsthand experience about and to see with their own eyes more than a half of Russia. A trip in an express passenger train takes less than two days, whereas an ordinary train will deliver you in a little bit more than two days. As Novosibirsk has been initially found by railway workers, its main railway station, where trains from Moscow arrive, Novosibirsk Glavniy is located in a stone’s throw from the city centre. It is easy to get to any place in the city from the station since there is the subway station Garin-Mikhaylovsky’s Place [‘ploh-schud ‘Gah-ree-nah Mee-khi-‘lov-scah-vah] and a major bus junction in vicinity. Besides, the citizens of Novosibirsk claim their railway station to be the most beautiful in the country and they are probably right.

The other way of getting to Novosibirsk via Moscow is by plane. Novosibirsk-Moscow is one of the most popular air route in Russia. Airlines operating these flights:
S7 Airlines feature 4 daily flights and one flight on Mondays-Wednesday-Friday (all to and from Domodedovo airport in Moscow)
Transaero has one regular daily flight and often make the second one (all to and from Domodedovo airport in Moscow);
Aeroflot proposes to its passengers three flights a day (Sheremetyevo) and one extra flight on Thursdays and Sundays (Vnukovo);
Ural Airlines has one morning daily flight and one Thursday-Friday-Sunday evening flight (Domodedovo);
UTAir offers 2 daily flights.
So, that's at least 11 and upto 15 flights every day. Information is updated in August 2009.
In May 2011 VIM-Avia opens it's 2 times per day flight from Moscow to Novosibirsk.
Domodedovo airport is considered to be more modern, than Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo.

Flying to Novo. Photo by Svetlana Bumarina.

The minimal price of round-trip economy class ticket for an adult amounted to ~EUR 200 at S7 in August 2009 if buy it advance on their website . Anyway, more likely that the minimal price would be about EUR250. However, the students possessing ISIC or Euro26 student cards can buy discount tickets. Please, take into account that sometime the transportation tax, which amounts to a little bit more than 2,000 rubles for this route, is not included into the price of the ticket. The flight from Moscow to Novosibirsk takes about three hours, whereas flying in the opposite direction is almost one hour longer.

All the planes from Moscow land in Tolmachevo – the local airport situated eighteen kilometers from the city centre. It's good and thought to be Number 2 in Russia after Domodedovo. The means of transportation from there to the city are cabs and buses whose routes may be found at the airport’s website as well as directly on the display in the arrival hall. Be careful with the taxi drivers at the airport. Different sorts of difficulties related to them in particular and issues related to taxi in general are described at 'City Transport'. One must keep in mind that it is safer and wiser to address an official representative of a registered transportation firm. He or she can be usually found at a desk behind a special taxi calling window in the airport. Or else, some airlines provide to their passengers the service of calling a taxi straight from the board of a plane.