Centre-Avia continues to grow in weak market(300 words)

Published: 11/3/2000

On the 26th October 2000 Bykovo Airport-based Centre-Avia opened a new route to Ufa using a Yak-42, adding to a route opened to Rostov-on-Don earlier in October.

According to Mikhail Uryvaev, the spokesman for Centre-Avia, the company was granted the license on the route on the basis of the existing licensed carriers operating at high load factors and the SCAS (formerly the FSVT) believing that there remains demand on the route According to Uryvaev, Centre-Avia after researching the route believes they can operate viably despite the presence of larger carriers such as Aeroflot. The main reason for their optimism is rising train tisket prices have reduced the differential on air travel. Given the time taken by train, air travel has become an attractive option with a train ticket to Ufa from Moscow costing Rb 1600 one-way, while Centre-Avia charges Rb 2200 for economy one-way.

The airline has continued to increase its traffic during 2000, according to Uryvaev, as they open new routes at rate of one every 1.5 months despite the soft domestic air transport market. The airline operates regular passenger routes from Moscow to Anapa, Gelendzhik, Volgograd, Magnitogorsk, Rostov-on-Don, Stavropol, Ufa, and also Hanover, Stuttgart, (Germany). Domestic routes are operated from Bykovo Airport, but its German routes are operated from Vnukovo Airport, as Bykovo cannot service international flights. Centre-Avia also flies from Magnitogorsk to Mineral Waters and Sochi, operating charter flights in the summer season.

Centre-Avia currently operates 25 Yak-42D, 3 Yak-40 and 1 An-24, but has plans to acquire 2 Tu-204. All of its aircraft are leased from Aviatechnologia (leasing company) a fellow member of the AT Alliance, a curiously described non-commercial partnership of aviation and metallurgy companies. It also includes Bykovo Aircraft Repair Plant and Stupino Metal Plant

Article ID: 2178