Astrakhan Airlines still struggling for passengers despite route expansion (410 words)

Published: 7/14/2000

The Governor of Astrakhan and his Iranian counterpart from the province of Gillian have agreed to the opening of a route between the city of Astrakhan and Risht in Iran. The initiative to open the route came from the Iranian side, although the lack of an Iranian consulate in Astrakhan will mean, according to Vladimir Stepanovich, Director General Director of Astrakhan Airlines, that potential passengers for the An-24 serviced route will have to travel to Moscow for a visa. This, according to Stepanovich, will keep the volume on the route low. The airline, reported as employing 485 at the end of 1999 but with this expected to be reduced by a redundancy programme, is based at Astrakhan's Narimanovo Airport. It has been expanding its route network elsewhere in the CIS over recent months, with scheduled flights started to Aktau in Kazakhstan and Baku in Azerbaijan. It also has plans to shortly open a scheduled service to Tbilisi via Rostov-on-Don. Despite the route expansion, the company, according to Stepanovich, is still struggling with falling traffic. In 1999 they carried 95,000 passengers (earlier reports suggested 90,000) 15% less than in 1998 and substantially down from the 200,000 carried in 1992. Load factors are reported to be under pressure with Moscow flights flying below the 50% breakeven required in April. Stepanovich believes that it is also likely that the airline will experience a fall in traffic in 2000 despite the general recovery elsewhere. The first quarter of 2000 bears this out, with an unspecified 'small' decline in traffic on the first quarter of 1999. The airline's cargo business is very small reflecting the absence of dedicated cargo aircraft in their fleet. Currently the airline operates a fleet of 16 Ka-26 helicopters, seven An-24s (Bs and RVs), ten An-2s, two Yak-42Ds, five Tu-134As and one Mi-8, although not all the aircraft are reported to be in flyable condition. Stepanovich was not explicit about how many and which aircraft. Reports in April suggested that the airline required eight engines upgraded for life extensions in 2000 alone. It is interesting to note that despite this gloomy outlook on the part of Stepanovich, his colleague Victor Pilyugin, General Director of Narimanovo Airport, painted a picture in October 1999 of both airport and airline in rude health, despite the pressures of higher fuel costs. This again emphasises the difficulty of obtaining reliable information from many of the regional operators.

Article ID: 1940