11/08/2019 16:56

Airports Fight for Carriers

[IMG=18214-3685] As IS BANKO learned, in the nearest future VIM-Avia may change its “residence” and move its base from the Domodedovo to the Vnukovo Airport. The main reason for this “move”, according to the interview of Roman Pakhomov, the First Deputy General Director of the airline company, gave to the Business newspaper, is the traffic intensity of the Domodedovo base. The carrier and Vnukovo are conducting negotiations at present, and the final decision has not been taken yet. Meanwhile, the participants of the market believe that the move of VIM-Avia to Vnukovo is quite possible. ‘Here it could become one of the basic carriers of the airport,’ Dmitry Gorin, the Inna Tour General Director, remarked in his interview to the IS BANKO reporter. It is also possible that the company was offered more profitable financial conditions, experts suppose. And, last but not least, this may be connected with the company plans for the development of regular flights inside the country, geographically the program of these flights would rather fit the Vnukovo network. The operators also believe that the airport will obviously profit from it, they note its desire to win over major carriers. Domodedovo, on its part, believes that it is too early to speak of the VIM-Avia departure. ‘We are working with this carrier on a permanent basis, and we give credit to the growth of the flight network and passenger traffic it has achieved,’ was the comment upon the situation of Anna Krasnova, the head of the Domodedovo press-service. On the whole, according to experts’ estimates, the potential move of the airline company to the competitor would hardly affect the travel business as a whole and Moscow air traffic in particular. ‘As a matter of fact, everything will depend on what the Vnukovo Airport will look like,’ remarks Aleksander Nikitenko, the Space Travel Tourism Director. Even now one could cite certain advantages of Vnukovo which is closer to Moscow, in particular. ‘Besides that, everybody would just profit if transports cost go down due to better financial conditions. Moreover, Vnukovo is quite acceptable for the departure of charter flights to foreign countries,’ sums up Aleksander Tugolukov, the Biblio Globus Director.