Civilian carriers concerned over price-cutting and safety issues

Published: 3/2/2000

Amirani Kurtanidze, Managing Director of East Line, Russia's third largest carrier, has criticised last year's government decree, legalising the use of state and development aviation aircraft and facilities for commercial purposes. According to Kurtanidze, the military sector was one of the primary reasons behind a decline on its main cargo routes, down 6% between Russia and China and 9% between Russia and India. The decree allows the federal departments, such as the VTA, the air transport wing of the air force, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Emergency Situations to use their aircraft for unscheduled passenger and cargo traffic. Exactly how this occurs without the state entities undercutting commercial operators is supposedly avoided by the fact that the FSVT coordinates cargo rates, although passenger rates are left to the entity's discretion. In August 1999, commercial operators warned that the decree would allow the military to lure passengers simply by dumping prices. In reality, military aviation has long earned additional revenues from civil transportation, but the official sanction has prompted East Line's cry of foul play. It claims that military aviation can afford to dump prices, as most operating costs are state-financed. Kurtanidze estimates military flight costs at $800 per hour, compared to $1500 per hour in civil aviation. He calculates that the decree is costing the Russian cargo sector millions of dollars of lost revenue. East Line may be the first Russian airline openly to criticise the government decree, but its sentiments are shared by other carriers. Aeroflot has been publicly critical in the Vedomosti newspaper and letters of protest have been sent to the FSVT. According to the Civil Airport Association, its membership of over 150 Russian airports is also against the resolution. The carriers are also worried that it perpetuates the practise of overloading given the military's very poor safety record in the cargo area: something that the FSVT has moved decisively to eliminate of late, but it is not authorised to check military and test bases. Three days before the resolution was signed, on the 29th July 1999, an Il-76TD carrying Chinese goods crashed in Irkutsk. The aircraft was operated by Elf Air, which is based at the Ramenskoye military aerodrome near Moscow. Also an Il-76 belonging to VASO forced by bad weather to land at Domodedovo Airport in October 1999 was one and a half times overloaded according to a FSVT inspection team. Various estimates suggest that Ramenskoye accounts for some 15% of the Moscow aviation hub cargo transportation. According to recent FSVT figures for 1999, total volume was 490,000 tonnes, although what proportion was attributable to the military is difficult to surmise, particularly when civilian operators are not beyond hiring the local VTA unit to do some carrying, a prime example of which is the close relationship between Volga Dnepr and the local An-124 unit. Associated articles: www.concise.org. 16th August 1999; 13th October 1999; 20th December 1999

Article ID: 1494