Ryanair is poised to start flights to Russia after winning permission to start services from next March.
The country’s aviation authority has given the green light for flights from Dublin to to Moscow and St Petersburg.
The budget carrier is in “exploratory” talks with a number of airports as potential destinations, according to a Ryanair spokesman.
“Ryanair has had discussions with a number of Russian airports, but they are purely exploratory at this time,” he told news agency Bloomberg.
Budget rival easyJet started serving Moscow from Gatwick and Manchester in March.
Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air began flying to Moscow Vnukovo airport in September.
Russia’s largest airline Aeroflot plans to establish a discount arm of its own at a cost of $100 million after the low-cost carriers targeted its home market.