Federal Forest Service provide the cash

Published: 4/28/2000

The forestery air support entity in the Russia"s North Western forest, the North Western Forest Protection Airbase (NWFPA), which is funded along with bases in Magadan, Gorno-Altaisk, Irkutsk and Vladimir, by the Federal Forest Service has been steadily developing it range of air transport activities over the last twelve months. Employing 400 people, the NWFPA has three divisions, Murmansk, Karelia and Lesavia, with aircraft based in Pskov, Novgorod and St Petersburg, although since May 1999, the entity has been developing it activities elsewhere in the region basing aircraft out of Tihvkin, close to St Petersburg. The primary focus of the NWFPA is the provision of air services for forestry patrol, fir fighting, surveying, ambulance flights and rescue missions. They have however, been building their commercial business through the provision of passenger helicopter flights in the region between the regional centre and Vyartsilya on the Russian side of the Finnish border. The Finnish authorities have yet to give approval for direct connection with Vartsila in Finland. Passengers therefore have to cross the border and are then taken by NWFPA to Petrozavodosk , although flights in the winter period are irregular and depend on the Finnish demand. As part of its strategy to develop its commercial business the NWFPA in conjunction with the regional authorities formed its Lesavia division over the last year out of the remnants of the Petrozavodsk Aviation Enterprise with the management of the airline in an effort to provide air cover in Karelia. Air transport in the region has been in crisis for some time, according to the regional newspaper Severny Kurier, but the new venture has not greeted with universal acceptance, with a number of parties seeking the airline"s privatization rather than its effective take over by the Federal Forest Service who control NWFPA. The new airline has been actively supported by the government of the Karelia region, which has been very keen to encourage airlines to operate in the region after the bankruptcy of Murmansk Airlines,which according to NWFPA is considering operating its aircraft under the NWFPA license, and has recently welcomed the developments of new routes from a number of carriers including an airline associated with regional steel maker Severstal and Archangelsk Airlines. Lesavia in its first year of operation has overhauled over 50% of its fleet inherited from Petrozavodsk and given that its operations are in the far north of Russia, restored the central heating at its base. The airline has been granted a license for air transport operations in Russia and overseas and has upgraded some of the services offered at Peski Airport. The NWFPA have also taken control of other local airports that would have closed without their intervention, in Pudozh, Sortavala, Kalevala and Segezha. The funding has saved 150 highly skilled industry jobs and allowed the airline to begin hiring pilots and engineers again. During the last 18 months 12m rubles has come from the Federal Forest Service to finance the recovery of the airline, which urgently required the overhaul of its fleet of nine An-2s,five Mi-8s and one Mi-26 to continue operations. Two of the Mi-8s were recently overhauled, as were five of the An-2s, with two currently being overhauled in St Petersburg. This represents a marked improvement on the condition of the fleet received from Petrozavodsk Airlines of which only two Mi-8s and one An-2 were viable, with eight An-2s unsalvageable. The state and region is also providing some financing as part of its support for air ambulance and passenger services that the airline provides to remote communities in the region. In the last twelve months the airline has carried 9,000 passengers, 3,000 on regular routes in the region, and 835 tonnes of freight. It also provides fire fighting and other services to the Forest Service. According to NWFPA their commercial passenger business is currently about breaking even, although they say that the help of the Forest Service has been required to achieve this suggesting the accounting is perhaps not entirely clean. Cashflow remains a challenge, as the Federal entities such as the Ministry of Health are slow to pay for services such as air ambulance work and steep rises in fuel cost have left the NWFPA with both higher costs and limited reserves of fuel and oil products. Additional risks still exist for the airline, as the region and the Forest Service do not necessarily completely agree on the region"s air transport development. They particularly dispute airport development, with the regional government currently favouring Besovets Airport over Peski, which the Forest Service has suggested could make Peski unviable in the future. Associated articles: www.concise.org 19th November 1999:Ex fire fighters go into airline business 21st February 2000:New flights from Karelia

Article ID: 1559