Stansted Airport’s firs scheduled flight to Moscow took to the skies on December 20 with the launch of a new direct service by Russian carrier Ural Airlines.

The airline will connect the East of England to the Russian capital via Domodedovo airport. Operating four times a week, the 160-seat A320 aircraft will offer customers both business and economy class service.

Serving 10 million customers a year across 200 destinations with a fleet of 46 aeroplanes, Ural Airlines is one of Russia's leading airlines and has been descibed by Stansted officials as "a welcome addition to the UK's fourth busiest airport with the second most European destinations behind Munich".

Aboudy Nasser, Stansted's chief commercial officer said "We're delighted to welcome Ural Airlines to Stansted, I'm sure the route will prove to be very popular with business passengers looking to access the Russian capital as well as leisure passengers keen to explore the amazing history and sights of this world-famous city."

Kirill Skuratov, Ural Airlines chief commercial officer, said: "Ural Airlines is very excited to be coming to Stansted and providing great value flights to the great city of Moscow.

"We look forward to working with Stansted Airport to make this new partnership a great success and we hope the route proves popular with passengers and leads to further growth and more opportunities in the future."

The launch of this new service comes just months after the announcement of Stansted Airport's first direct flight to India with flights to Amritsar being operated by Air India.

These new developments follow a report published by Stansted Airport calling for more long-distance flights across the region.

Ken O'Toole, Stansted's chief executive, said: "Our new ambition is to use our spare runway capacity to build our long-haul route network and improve the UK's connectivity with the rest of the world."

With the bilateral agreement between Russia and the UK restricting UK-Russia routes to two airlines each, Ural Airlines has joined Aeroflot, British Airways and Wizz Air as the only airlines operating flights between the two nations.

One-way fares start at £23 and are available to book at www.uralairlines.com/en.