Sibir and VAL report good growth over January-September 2001 (310 words)

Published: 10/31/2001

Siberia Airlines (Sibir) has reported that, in January-September 2001, it and Vnukovo Airlines (VAL) carried a combined total of 1,493,436 passengers, made up of 1,097,724 (Sibir) and 395,712 (VAL). Igor Volkov, spokesman for Sibir, said that comparable numbers do not exist for VAL given the differing methods of gathering the data, but they do suggest an industry beating 74% increase in Sibir's numbers over the 629,597 passengers carried in January-September 2000. While the Sibir figures include the routes that it inherited from VAL, the growth is none the less spectacular. Sibir and VAL combined carried 9,530 tonnes of cargo, with Sibir alone accounting for 7,788 tonnes or 27% more than in 9mo2000. VAL carried 1,742 tonnes in January - September 2001. The two companies performed 11,856 flights, including 3,388 flights for VAL and 8,468 flights for Sibir: an increase for Sibir of 37%, compared with the first nine months of 2000. Sibir's seat load factor increased 6.5% in the period to 74.1% and commercial load factor rose by 5.4% to 70.6%. It is not known how full VAL's aircraft were over this period in 2000 but Volkov says that in 9mo2001, VAL's load factors were lower than Sibir's with a seat load factor of 62.9% and a commercial load factor of 63.7%. According to Volkov, as of 1st October 2001, Sibir and VAL operated 36 aircraft including six Il-86s, nine Tu-154s, 16 Tu-154M, and two Tu-204, including the aircraft subsequently lost in the Black Sea. He confirmed that, while the fleet may be larger, a number of aircraft in VAL fleet are currently not operational and are undergoing life extensions or repairs.

Article ID: 2873