Seeking further extension on exemption (557 words)

Published: 7/19/2001

Having been banned from flying to Finland, Norway and Sweden in April 2001 after the imposition of the Eurocontrol ban on aircraft entering European air space without ACAS equipment. A ban that was later lifted and the deadline extended to the 30th of September 2001 after the intervention of the Governors of Archangelsk and Murmansk. State owned Archangelsk Airlines (AVL) has been endeavouring to find funds for not only fitting the required ACAS equipment, but also the next European safety requirement, the installation of vertical separation equipment. The funding for the ACAS equipment however, is still not in place and as recently as July, the Governor of Archangelsk signed an application for funding from TACIS to assist AVL in acquiring the equipment. TACIS however, normally provides funding to non-commercial enterprises and if funding is agreed no monies will be forthcoming until 2002. AVL is therefore seeking to persuade Eurocontrol to extend the exemption until 1st of April 2002.This may prove to be a difficult task, although AVL spokesperson Arina Krivitskaya says that the airline has the support of Finland in particular. The latter being interest in extension of the exemption given its combined interests with AVL, that accounts for 80% of Arkangelsk air passengers, in opening up tourist access to the Karelia, Archangelsk and Murmansk regions though Finland. The cost of equipping the 6 aircraft for AVL to maintain its current routes to Tromse(Norway),Rovaniemi (Finland) and Lulea (Sweden) is put at $1.2m. According to Krivitskaya, the funding requirement of the airline above the cost of the ACAS equipment could be between $1.5m and $2m for the RVSM equipment over the next 5-7 years and potentially $5-10m on new aircraft. To replace parts of the airline's fleet of 26 aircraft including 5 Tu-154, 7 Tu-134, 5 An-24, 8 An-26 and 1 Yak-40. The sources of the funding were however, not clear for the airline at present. In 2000 the airline carried 157,000 passengers, with better punctuality than Aeroflot, according to Krivitskaya. A sales increase in $ terms on 1999 of 42% to $12m, with scheduled services on 18 routes and 8 regions in Russia, in addition to Norway, Finland and Sweden, representing 67% of total revenue. The scheduled business however, is growing at a considerably slower 26% in $ terms than the company's charter flights to both domestic and international resorts including Scandanavia, Greece and Turkey. Load factors overall were at 62%. The airline has recently overhauled 3 of its Tu-134s in Minsk , that included the addition of a business class in the 70 seat aircraft , with the fourth aircraft due to go to Minsk in August. The airline is aiming to fly some of these aircraft out of Naryan Mar and Apatity in the Murmansk Region to destinations within and outside the region. Having delayed price rises earlier in the year, when the railways raised fares, for fear of discouraging the summer tourists. AVL raised its prices by 16% on the 11th of July on flights from Archangelsk to Naryan Mar and to Moscow, and by 4% on flights from Apatity to Moscow and onto to Sochi and Anapa. The airline has recently overhauled 3 of its Tu-134s in Minsk , that included the addition of a business class in the 70 seat aircraft , with the fourth aircraft due to go to Minsk in August. The airline is aiming to fly some of these aircraft out of Naryan Mar and Apatity in the Murmansk Region to destinations within and outside the region. In addition to air transport, AVL's An-26s provide government support with one aircraft, an An-26-104 flying laboratory, that is being used for the inspection of fish stocks in the Norwegian Sea until August and will then move to the Barents Sea is September.

Article ID: 2658