KHL - 5 January 2021

Salavat Yulaev Ufa vs. Avangard Omsk

From Belarus' capital the journey takes Avangard into way more familiar territory in the East, where they are still listed, in the Chernyshev Division. Avangard will look to make up for the bitter overtime loss against Dinamo Minsk, conceding a penalty first and a powerplay goal with it.

SU7312 MSQ 1030-1525 UFA A320 VP-BTA (04/01/21)

SU7311 UFA 2030-2050 SVO A320 (05/01/21)

HC Sochi vs. Jokerit Helsinki

After a point won (or a game lost) at CSKA Moscow, Jokerit are off to the Black Sea for a game against Sochi, who look more and more likely to miss the playoffs again.

AY7503 SVO 2230-0110(+1) AER A319 (03/01/21)

AY7504 AER 2240-0045(+1) HEL A319 (05/01/21)

Kunlun Red Star vs. Severstal Cherepovets

It's a double Moscow trip for Severstal - and yet they are playing none of the Moscow teams. Chinese outfit Kunlun are first up on the menu, in Mytishchi, before a trip to Balashikha, the temporary home of Avangard Omsk.

SSF9922 CEE 1500-1550 SVO SU95 (04/01/21)

CSKA Moscow vs. Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg

A goalless draw in regulation time meant overtime for Avto in Ufa - and they lost to a sudden death goal by Philip Larsen. In Sunday's highest profile game against Jokerit, CSKA went into overtime too - and they won the game thanks to a goal by Andrei Svetlakov. Surely Ilya Kovalchuk and his men will look to improve on their goalless performance against CSKA, which shipped four goal still in the 5-4 OT win.

MMM9672 UFA 2122-2120 VKO A320 VQ-BIS (03/01/21)

Dinamo Minsk vs. SKA St. Petersburg

The first game of the new year takes SKA to Belarus, where they will play against Dinamo Minsk. Minsk has won the first game this year in overtime against Avangard, so will look to use some of the momentum against one of the strongest sides in the competition.

FV4201 LED xxxx-1720 MSQ A319 (04/01/21)

KHL - 4 January 2021

4 January 2021

Amur Khabarovsk vs. Barys Nur-Sultan

Barys look like the favourites for the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference, but the Amur team may not yet have given up on this spot either. For what will be back to back games between these teams in Khabarovsk, Barys will travel East with S7 Airlines:

SBI8424 NQZ xxxx-2330 KHV A320 (03/01/21)

Dinamo Riga vs. Dynamo Moscow

Going into the new year, these road trips have a strange shape, which also counts for Dynamo Moscow. The Moscow powerhouse first travels West to Riga, using an Aeroflot Boeing 737-800. They will face Dinamo Riga, a team that has been struggling all season to find any hint of form. But instead of doing the classic turn around Helsinki and/or St. Petersburg, their next stop will be Kazan, which is notably more than just a little bit further East:

SU7346 SVO 1600-1650 RIX B738 VQ-BHV (03/01/21)

SU7348 RIX 2330-0305(+1) KZN B738 VQ-BHV (04/01/21)

KHL - 3 January 2021

3 January 2021

Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk vs. Sibir Novosibirsk

These are two teams that are most probably out of the run for the playoffs. The hosts from Tatarstan are at the bottom of the Eastern Conference with just 22 points to show from 40 matches, while Sibir sits five points behind the last playoff berth, but with already three more matches played than Barys in eighth position. Sibir will start a rare East-West road trip with S7 Airlines, formerly known as Sibir Airlines of course. After Nizhnekamsk, they will visit Yaroslavl and Mytishchi, where they will face Lokomotiv and Kunlun Red Star.

SBI8513 OVB 1700-1700 NBC A320 (02/01/21)

Salavat Yulaev Ufa vs. Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg

With most teams using relatively common airliners these days, Avto is probably the most extravagant traveling unit in the KHL at the moment. For their road trips they are using an Airbus A320 that was once destined to be delivered to the SAAD Group in Saudi Arabia and to date still retains the fancy livery from back then. The first trip of 2021 will take Avto to Ufa and then on to Moscow, where they will face CSKA before heading home to the Ural again.

MMM9671 SVX 1400-1500 UFA A320 VQ-BIS (02/01/21)

MMM9672 UFA 2122-xxxx MOW A320 VQ-BIS (03/01/21)

Airbus A320 M-YKDA, these days registered as VQ-BIS, seen at Basel-Mulhouse in March 2017

CSKA Moscow vs. Jokerit Helsinki

Jokerit is spending more time on the road than any other team this season, with two home matches already re-aligned with their road trips after two lengthy quarantine spells. Coming off a home win over SKA in late December, the Jesters will take on the other "army team", CSKA, in Moscow first up, before heading South to Sochi. They will travel on a Finnair A319, as usual:

AY7501 HEL 1500-1740 SVO A319 (02/01/21)

AY7503 SVO 2230-0110(+1) AER A319 (03/01/21)

HC Sochi vs. Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod

Torpedo may look relatively safe in seventh place in the Eastern Conference, but within only a few games, things may soon look very different. It is vital for them thus to pick up maximum points from the game in Sochi, where the home team is once again struggling. Torpedo is a rare team to travel with Gazpromavia this season, though the type of aircraft is not confirmed yet.

EDIT (02/01/21, 01.45h): The flight will be done by a Sukhoi Superjet.

4G131 GOJ 0940-1200 AER SU95 (02/01/21)

Dinamo Minsk vs. Avangard Omsk

They may be called Avangard Omsk, but of course they are based in Balashikha for the second of probably three or even more seasons. A new arena is being built in Omsk, but may not be open before 2022. As part of the "Far Eastern Division" (Chernyshev Division in KHL speak), Avangard has a heavy traveling schedule too though, and this time they move West to Minsk, before heading back to the mid-East for a game in Ufa, before returning to Greater Moscow again. They will do so with the backing of Aeroflot:

SU7310 SVO 1600-1730 MSQ A320 VP-BTA (02/01/21)

SU7312 MSQ 1030-1525 UFA A320 VP-BTA (04/01/21)

KHL - 22 December 2020

Three games in the East, four games in the West, including some cross-Conference battles between form sides are on the menu for Tuesday 22 December 2020. Amur traveling quite a bit for the remainder of the year means none of the ultimate road trips for any of the Western teams for the time being. But this will change again in January.

Sibir Novosibirsk vs. Amur Khabarovsk

Amur will play the first couple of games of its road trip away in Novosibirsk, against a side that finally seemed to click again earlier this season, only to fade away once more. At least they are still in contention for the playoffs, with Amur four points behind on the table.

SYL9257 KHV 1500-xxxx OVB B738 (20/12/20)

Salavat Yulaev Ufa vs. Dinamo Minsk

The two teams in fifth place of each conference face off in Ufa on Tuesday. The Belarussian representatives will travel there with Belavia, on one of the old rusty Boeing 737-500s:

BRU8741 MSQ 1400-1845 B735 (21/12/20)

Dynamo Moscow vs. Jokerit Helsinki

As mentioned earlier on this blog, Jokerit are in Greater Moscow for two games only, traveling back home to Finland the night after the game at the currently 4th placed Dynamo:

AY7502 SVO 2355-0020(+1) HEL A319 (22/12/20)

** More to follow **

KHL - 21 December 2020

After a few days "off", the KHL is back on Monday with four matches, one of them being a postponed fixture from earlier this season, where COVID-19 struck in or around the Jokerit camp. While the league has made it clear that further called off games in Helsinki may lead to forfeitures, apparently there are also contingency plans to have Jokerit playing matches somewhere in Russia. Other travelling teams for 21 December are Barys Nur-Sultan, Avangard Omsk (just within Moscow Oblast though, so no flight) and HC Sochi.

Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod vs. Barys Nur-Sultan

Two neighbors in the Eastern Conference table meet at Nagorny Arena, and while Torpedo has more points, Barys has no less than four matches in hand against their opponents. Barys arrive from their previous fixture away at Kunlun (in Mytishchi) with S7 Airlines:

SBI8401 DME 2130-2245 GOJ B738 (19/12/20)

Vityaz Podolsk vs. Jokerit Helsinki

It's just a short road trip for Jokerit this time, flying out to Moscow Oblast for a couple of matches. The first one is at Vityaz, who are still battling for contention in the Gagarin Cup playoffs. Their target would rather be Spartak though, and not Jokerit, who still have up to six games in hand against all Western opposition. Jokerit, as usual, travels to Moscow with Finnair:

AY7501 HEL 1500-1740 SVO A319 OH-LVL (20/12/20)

AY7502 SVO 2355-0020(+1) HEL A319 (22/12/20)

Dinamo Riga vs. HC Sochi

If you think Sochi is in a bad place hockey-wise, look at Dinamo Riga. Just five regulation wins out of 35 matches means that they are far off the pace and in last place in the Western Conference. Constant changes to their squad don't help and whether Peteris Skudra is a calming influence behind the boards may be a question of its own. Sochi will arrive from the Black Sea with S7 Airlines:

SBI8461 AER 1445-1620 RIX B738 (20/12/20)

IIHF U20 Worlds 2021

C-GHQY, Air Canada, Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner
seen at London Heathrow in July 2016

With a lot less scheduled flights across the Atlantic and the need to remain within a bubble, all the European teams for the IIHF U20 World Championship in Edmonton will travel to Canada on charter flights for once. The word is that the Swedish, Finnish and Russian team will assemble in Helsinki. The Swiss team will travel from Zurich, while there is another flight that will depart from Vienna. The relatively limited range of the Boeing 737-800 for this long trip means that all these flights will have to make a fuel stop enroute. At least for two flights this is confirmed to be happening in Keflavik.

Update (14 Dec 0130 UTC): All three flights took an additional fuel stop at Goose Bay. From there, it was finally possible to calculate ETAs for the arrivals in Edmonton:

ENT521 SDL 0900-1100 HEL 1730-1900 KEF 2015-1930 YYR 2030-2130 YEG B738 SP-ESH (13/12/20)

ENT535 KTW 1045-1145 VIE 1700-2000 KEF 2115-2030 YYR 2130-2230 YEG B738 SP-ENR (13/12/20)

ENT547 WAW xxxx-0850 ZRH 1415-1700 KEF 1900-1815 YYR 1915-2030 YEG B738 SP-ENO (13/12/20)

SBI8449 SVO 1055-1115 HEL A20N VP-BTX (13/12/20)

An Enter Air Boeing 737-800 taking off from Warsaw-Chopin in August 2019

There appear to be strict rules for the teams on board, with dedicated seating areas for each team and its staff, as well as obviously strict hygiene rules including the wearing of face masks all the time.

Team Sweden has been training in Sundsvall in the past few days and will depart from there to Helsinki, where they will join up with their counterparts from Finland and Russia. The Russian team is set to travel from their training base outside Moscow to Helsinki with S7 Airlines.

Team Switzerland has been training near Zug and will fly from Zurich. It would seem logical that they are to be joined by Team Germany, which has been preparing for the tournament in the South of the country, in Füssen.

The Czech team's training location in the Southeast, in Vyskov, rather close to the Austrian border could indicate that the Czech team will join Team Austria on the flight from Vienna, possibly together with Team Slovakia.

Thanks to sources in North America (notably @sportsaviation on Twitter), there is also a flight for the United States U20s hockey team, which traveled to Edmonton from Detroit with Air Canada:

AC7027 DTW 1700-1910 YEG A319 C-GBIA (14/12/20)

UPDATE (16/12/20, 19.30h):

The teams traveling from Vienna and Helsinki left behind by the playing equipment, as they refused to board their planes with hockey gear in the cabin. After emergency meetings were held at both airports, it was agreed that the equipment was to be shipped to Edmonton with a dedicated cargo flight. This will be an Air Canada Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that will first pick up material in Vienna, then in Helsinki, before a direct flight over to Edmonton.

AC7246 YYZ 0730-2125 VIE B788 C-GHQY (16/12/20, ferry flt)

AC7247 VIE 1630-2000 HEL xxxx-xxxx YEG (17/12/20)

UPDATE (31/12/20, 22.30h):

ENT548P WAW 0732-1019 KEF 1128-1054 YEG B738 SP-ESE (31/12/20)

ENT536 YEG 2200-1100 KEF 1200-1725 ZRH 2040-2140 VIE B738 SP-ESE (02/01/21)

ENT522 YEG 2300-xxxx KEF xxxx-1925 (+1) ARN 2010(+1)-2230(+1) MUC B738 SP-ENO (04/01/21)

KHL 21 January 2020

21 January 2020

Jokerit Helsinki vs. Barys Nur-Sultan

Going into the final straight after the All-Star weekend in Moscow, Barys are traveling to the red-hot Jokerit Helsinki. Barys once again will not take their old Boeing 737 to the West and will trust one of Severstal Avia's Sukhoi Superjets instead. The arrival is believed to be on 20 Januar 2020, but yet to be confirmed in detail.

SSF9745 TSE 1500-1530 HEL SU95 (20/01/20)

SSF9746 HEL xxxx-0050(+1) LED SU95 (21/01/20)

*** Information for the other games yet to come ***