Carrier reaps benefits of merger with VAL (324 words)

Published: 6/13/2001

Siberia Airlines (Sibir) has reported its results for the period January-May 2001 and has increased the number of passengers carried by 59.5% to 389,673 passengers, reflecting, in May at least, the effective merger of Sibir with Vnukovo Airlines, which led to a large number of VAL passengers flying Sibir. If the two airlines had been combined for the full period, passenger numbers would have risen to 464,592 over 4,433 flights. Flights for Sibir in the period rose by 29%, to 3,572 in all, with cargo volumes rising by 26.3% to 4,080 tonnes. Seat load factors also rose by 3.1%, to 67% with commercial load factors increasing by 0.8%, to 65.1%. The comparison of the five-month figures with those at the four-month stage demonstrates the impact of the integration of VAL. In the period January-April 2001, Sibir passenger numbers were running at 272,366: a 39% increase on January-April 2000, over 22% more flights. Traditionally, the May holiday season has high traffic over January-April. However, Sibir, helped by the VAL business, increased passenger traffic by 139%, with flights rising by 58% and cargo increasing by 66%. In addition to the VAL benefits, the airline believes that its summer schedule, introduced in March, is proving to be a success and justifying the 58% increase in flights over the March-October schedule in 2000, with around 190 flights a week currently, including 40 international flights. The total number of international flights has increase from the 33 international destinations serviced in 2000. It is still not clear whether the airline will be adversely affected by the monthly licensing of destination by the GSGA for charter flights from Moscow. The airline is also reported to be considering a scheduled route to London from Novosibirsk, in addition to the flights in cooperation with Lufthansa via Frankfurt. In March 2001, Sibir won the Russian Travel Awards contest, as the best Russian airline.

Article ID: 2586