49% stake remains unsold at $5.6m (204 words)

Published: 3/23/2001

The efforts of the Rostov-on-Don Property Fund to auction off Don Airline's 49% stake in Aeroflot affiliate Aeroflot-Don on the 22nd of March 2001, failed to find a buyer, according to Alexei Chibrikov of Aeroflot's Corporate Project Department Chibrikov said that Aeroflot was not interested in buying the stake and no other buyers emerged at the reserve price of $5.6m. The projected sale proceeds where earmarked to pay off the bankrupt Don Airlines creditors. Aeroflot-Don, which was created in March 2000, now operates 19 aircraft including 2 Tu-154M, 9 Tu-154B, 5 Tu-134 and 3 An-12. It started operating in April 2000 and now flies from Rostov-on-Don to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Neryungri, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Ekaterinburg, Krasnoayrsk, Tashkent, Yerevan and outside the CIS to Germany, Italy, UAE, Turkey, and Israel. In April-December 2000 Aeroflot-Don carried 260,000 passengers including 65,000 on international routes. This year the airline had a good start carrying 23,600 passengers during January, traditionally a slow period for Russian carriers. According to Aeroflot the region has a potential market of 1-1.5 m passengers per year. The cargo market in the region is however, showing the general sluggishness evident elsewhere with 130 tonnes carried in January compared with 2000 tonnes between April-December 2000.

Article ID: 2441