Traffic doubles on September 1999 (540 words)

Published: 10/5/2000

Vnukovo Airlines (VAL) has reported that during September 2000 it carried 106,428 passengers, a substantial increase over September 1999 when the company carried 52,744 passengers. According to Alexei Sapkin, the company's spokesperson, revenue passenger kilometres and revenue tonne kilometres doubled compared with September 1999. The company attributes the improvement to the airline's efforts to improvements in service and punctuality with only 15 of 205 flights late in September according to Sapkin. The airline did not disclose overall seat load factor in August 2000, but said that on some routes in September the carrier experienced seat load factors over 90% such as Moscow-Sochi, Moscow-Pevek, Moscow-Mahachkala and Moscow - Novy Urengoi. Sapkin did not give any operating results for the first nine months of 2000. The company's management is continuing to reduce its debts to suppliers and service providers and said that its debt of $24m at the end of 1999 is steadily decreasing despite the various calls on money for the improvement of service at the airline. Recent reports however, of suspended fuel supplies due to non-payment, suggest that the payments are perhaps not being made fast enough. A fact that is recognised by management according to Sapkin, who accepts that a lot still has to be done. Sapkin said the company is actively repaying residual fuel debts to Norilsk and Tolmachevo and relations between the parties have improved according to Sapkin, as the airports are eager not to lose a customer. Adding that “If I am a driver of a car and fuel my car every day at a particular car refuelling station and owe the station Rb 500 from old times but pay every day Rb 100, is it sensible for the owner of the station to stop servicing me? If he doesn't service me he will lose much more money than I owe”. According to Sapkin - who a few weeks ago claimed that VAL did not have a debt-servicing problem - the airline is grateful to its creditors for waiting for VAL to pay its debts. The airline expects to carry at least 1 m passengers in 2000 or around 10% more than 1999, however, added that the recovery of passenger volumes was lower than expected by many airlines. For VAL, the test will come in the end of the year, when the new management team's performance year on year can be judged. Of the VAL fleet of 50 aircraft about 20 are operating according to the airline, although this is a marked improvement on the 3.5 aircraft (0.5 aircraft is not explained) that were flyable when the Krasnenker team took over. As for the grounded aircraft, Sapkin argues that they are not required given the low level of traffic. VAL has recently signed an agreement with IBS on the development and introduction of control systems and financial reporting to give the management a better view of the condition of the carrier on reasonable time scale. The project will be completed by March 2001, according to the company.

Article ID: 2109