Price differential over scheduled carriers very small (240 words)

Published: 10/13/2000

On the 28th September Aeroflot launched a new charter route to Tel Aviv from Moscow. The route will be serviced by Tu-154s once a week on Thursday's offering both business and economy classes. If the service is deemed popular its frequency will be increased to twice a week. Aeroflot's new service will compete with 2 Israeli charter airlines Arkia and Israir who have also just been granted the right to fly this route. Israir will launch its bi-weekly service on November 3, 2000 and state airline, GTK Rossiya, will also launch charter flights on this route on 28th of October , 2000. The route is currently serviced by regular passenger flights operated by Transaero and El Al who are now faced by competition from four other airlines. Transaero is not openly admitting to fears about the increased number of carriers on this route because of its established market share and seven years operating the route. The price differential between tickets on the Aeroflot charter flight and Transaero's scheduled is only $1 despite the superior Transaero service and aircraft, Boeing 737s. In contrast to Aeroflot, Transaero also has nine flights a week, compared to Aeroflot's one. Despite the concerns of the scheduled carriers of over capacity on the route travel agents such as Moscow based Profit Tour, a Moscow-based Travel Agency, are convinced that additional airlines will find demand.

Article ID: 2128