Second tier carriers suffer in new ministry restrictions (507 words)

Published: 4/23/2001

The Ministry of Transport through its civil aviation agency the GSGA, has published its list of approved carriers on the seven most popular Russian international charter destinations during May: the seven destinations being Istanbul, Antalya (Turkey), Barcelona (Spain), Larnaca, Paphos (Cyprus), Varna, Burgas (Bulgaria). The new regulation of charter carriers has come about as a result of the failure of charter carrier RusAvia to bring home Russian tourists from resorts in South East Asia during December and January and led to the subsequent suspension of the airline's licence. The public outcry mixed with some less than savoury stories about the airlines, focussed attention on the second tier charter carriers and resulted in authorisation on the 12th of March to curb their activities and enforce greater adherence to the regulations. According to Stanislav Ovcharenko, the head of licensing department within the GSGA, the reason for the delay in publishing the list was due to the installation of TCAS equipment, which had restricted some carrier's ability to service European destinations due to the introduction of new regulations by Eurocontrol in April 2001. Although while some airlines received extensions in the to fly Eurocontrol area without TCAS until July, the Ministry issued a list only for May, which is an active month for Russian vacation traffic given the occurrence of three public holidays during the period. The lists for June, July, and August will be published later. The list of approved 16 airlines includes Domodedovo Airlines, KrasAir, Sibir, CMW (Caucasus Mineral Waters), East Line, GTK Rossia, Pulkovo Airlines, Ural Airlines, Vnukovo Airlines, Continental Airlines, AJT, Atlant-Soyuz, Aviaenergo, Orenburg Airlines, Omskavia and Irs Aero. The list being completely dominated by the larger players with only Orenburg Airlines, Omskavia and Irs Aero relatively minor players. The new regulations have no impact on the scheduled carriers with Aeroflot continuing to fly to Larnaca, Istanbul, Antalya and Barcelona; Transaero to Paphos; and AviaExpessCruise to Varna and Burgas. According to Ovcharenko, demand on the vacation routes should be higher than 2000, with 10-15% more passengers expected to boost the 0.89 m passengers carried last year; the latter a considerable improvement on the 0.5m in 1999. Some destinations according to the ministry could even see growth up by 30% and it says it has asked the airlines to increase the frequency of flights. Despite this rather rosy picture from the ministry and the belief on the part of Ovcharenko that the new system meets market needs. The airlines complain of not getting sufficient flights. Vnukovo Airlines commented that it got only weekly frequency to Istanbul despite asking for more routes and higher frequencies. The airlines also complain of restrictions to destinations already served, therefore stopping expansion. Ovcharenko said that they had thoroughly checked carriers and that he was not expecting any surprises. It is however, interesting to note, that the destinations that have been restricted do not include long haul routes to SE Asia and flights to Egypt where RusAvia had its problems.

Article ID: 2504