Moscow 2009
Hi everyone, Preparations are in full swing for Moscow 2009. The highlights of the trip will include a visit to the Moscow Airshow and the Museum at Monino. We are also trying to arrange a flight from Moscow to St Petersburgh aboard an Aeroflot Tu-154. It will be a 10 day tour which will also give us time to view the landmarks of the Russian capital, and the beautiful city of St Petersburgh. We are trying to make this as affordable as possible by having a big group. If you would like to bring family and friends along, we will organise non-aviation excursions for the days when we will be busy doing our devotions. As an indication of price, it will probably work out at around Eur 1,400 - Lm 600, including half board accomodation, flights, taxes, fuel surcharge and coach transfers throughout. To keep it cheap we will try to book early... prices should be confirmed around October and we will try to have a gradual repayment scheme of around Eur 150 monthly to make things as affordable as possible. This has been a lifelong dream for many of us. If we work together, we will get there. Please feel free to give your ideas of what you would like to do, and we'll do our best to make it happen. Looking forward to hearing from you, Mark

Mark, just an opinion or a question, as I really don't have any experiences in organising something like this, so my question may not make much sense. It is obvious that the cheaper it is the better for everyone, and again the cheaper it is, the more response will probably result to this wonerful idea that like you say, is the dream of many. So, I am curious. Would the ommission of non aviation related sight seeing in Moscow / regional flights / and an extra 4 days than necessary not make it even (much) cheaper ?? ..... don't take me wrong ..... I would love to go all over the beautiful and fascinating City of Moscow, and I would take the experience of that flight on a TU-154 with me to my grave (!) and yes, I would like to stay 10 days away from work rather than 6, but don't you think all these ommissions could further dent a third or so to the price, and make it even more reachable to more people, thus inceasing the possibility of this materialising, even if one has to "sacrifice" taking photos in the Red Square - if you can call that a sacrifice as most of us are only interested in the airshow and the Monino Museum. I believe 5 or 6 days should be enough..... but like I said earlier, this is just a qustion. I hope it makes sense.

Alan, by far the cheapest option is to "ride on" to a tour being organised by the regular tour operators. I am awaiting quotations from a number of them. Thecrux of the matter is that we need a RELIABLE handling agent in Moscow, and the only way we can do that is by going for the tried and tested routes. Remember that Moscow is full of booby-traps for the unaccompanied tourist, so I'm trying to steer clear of this. As such, the airfare consists of a serious portion of the trip, plus the visa, so staying for a couple of extra nights will not really bear too heavily. I'm actually trying to swell numbers by having a "missus - friendly" programme which would encourage participants to bring along family and/or friends. There would be an excursion for those who would not wish to spend a whole day seeing planes (like we did on the Pratica di Mare tour), and thus we get economies of scale. Of course, I will also offer the option to people who want to skip the St Petersburgh leg to catch a flight back to Malta. At this stage, I'm keeping most options open, and we should have prices and programmes available for mid-October. Once we have prices in hand, we can make an informed decision. Cheers, Mark

i think i would prefer if we go to the airshow only... cause for me its a bit too much that number... but i would be very intrested if we just go to the airshow and get back soon after the airshow... just saying my opinion..

ok, Mark. What I have working against me, is my wife's strong insistance that she's coming with me to England next year (Riat - rain or shine) .... you see .... she still thinks we are going to England, so really, I am not joking when I say, that after years going to airshows alone while she doesn't have a holiday, however worth it the Moscow trip may be, I have to first see how I may start to put the words ........ Gee .... don't even want to continue for now ...we'll see ...... :roll: :roll: :roll: