Resident airline appears reluctant to cooperate

Published: 4/17/2000

Reports are emerging that Grabtsevo Airport near the city of Kaluga in the Kaluzhskaya region, declared bankrupt two years ago and a potential acquisition target for gas giant Gazprom, has been sold by its creditors to Transaviaservice, an entity created by a railway company. Represented by Vyacheslav Dubrovin of Ramputmsh, a railway repair company, the prospective owners explained they intended to revive aviation in the region 150 km south of Moscow and are reported to have convinced the local authorities of their ability to do so. The airport is subject of interest for a number of parties including the airport"s resident carrier SGT, whose representative Andrey Surkov has expressed doubts about the ability of Transaviaservice to implement its plan and suggested that it also contradicted the plan agreed in 1998 under which a new entity Kaluga Air Transportation was supposed to be formed with SGT collaborating. It also appears that SGT has lease rights to the airport"s runway and that they are reluctant to give them up, despite the fact that they are reported to be underutilizing the assets. According to the local authorities there is only one option for the airport and that is a compromise between the two parties, particularly for SGT, now they have lost the support of Gazprom, who reportedly withdrew due to the cost of the project. For the incoming entity the costs without the cooperation of SGT could be high. Associated article: www.concise.org 2nd November 1999:Bankrupt airport gets new lease of life

Article ID: 1582