Cargo business suffering from lack of competitive edge (350 words)

Published: 10/17/2000

Between January and September of this year, Sibir has reported an increase in its passenger traffic of 8% over the first nine months of 1999 carrying 629,597 passengers. The company's cargo and mail however, decreased 2% to 6,136 tonnes for the same period. The Novosibirsk based airline reported that it flew 6% more flights in the period, suffering a fall in seat load factors of 2% to 69.6% and of commercial load factor of 2.5% to 67%. The airline commented that the traditional vacation period of July-September saw good traffic growth with the airline carrying 17% more passengers compared with July-September 1999 with 10% more flights. The nine-month figures also showed some pickup from the eight-month figures of a more modest 4.1% and a fall in volume after a 3.3% increase in cargo seen in the first eight months of 2000. The figures emphasise that despite falls in Russia's traffic overall according to the Civil Aviation Service, both Sibir and Aeroflot have reported passenger traffic against the trend, as have a number of other larger carriers. With Aeroflot's nine-month passenger traffic increasing by 9% compared to the first 9 months of 1999. Aeroflot has however, shown substantial improvement in cargo traffic with traffic up by 23.3% in the first 9 months of 2000. The slow performance of Sibir's cargo business probably reflects that it does not have any dedicated cargo aircraft. This, according to industry sources, has resulted in the carrier not being aggressive in pricing in a domestic market that is increasingly competitive and losing share. The exception to his view being Aerofllot, which with a mixed fleet was rated the largest Russian cargo carrier during 1999 and according to the collator of the data, the Transport Clearing House and retained that position at the end of May 2000. Its high standing however, is primarily attributable to the international cargo routes where it's experience is valued. Sibir occupied 12th place at the 5-month stage, slipping from its 10th position in 1999. Losing out to dedicated cargo carriers such as Polyot, the leading heavy specialist in Russia and not even in the top 20 cargo carriers in 1999, and Tesis.

Article ID: 2131