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The future of the first Moscow – Rome charter flight (by Neva company-consolidator), planned from the 20th of October, is still in hands of authorities. As BANKO Information service found out, the receptive company – a Roman airport Ciampino still has not granted the necessary permission to the air company ‘KD-Avia’ that organizes the charter. ‘The flight is on our schedule,’ says Anastasia Volnova, representing a press service of the air company. ‘We sent our request a long time ago and we were not denied. Yet, we still do not have official permission. The thing is that it is usually issued 24 hour before the flight.’ As Domodedovo press service explained, such practice is not unusual, many airports work in similar regime as more and more charter flights are being organized; air companies also have a right to submit their request only 24 hour before the flight.
Getting through to the press service of Ciampino airport, a BANKO correspondent found out that the planned flight from Moscow was officially ‘registered’, even though it was not put on schedule yet – because of the absence of the permission document. In general, this event – Moscow charter arriving into the airport – has not received much attention because the airport already has long-term agreement of cooperation with Eastern Europe, even with planes of low budget air companies such as CarpatAir, Centralwings, Palair Macedonian. What is more, negotiations concerning the launch of a charter from Moscow have been held since 2003. ‘We needed time to arrange all details, consider opinions and coordinate them,’ says Boris Volkov, head of transport department of ‘Neva’ company. ‘Currently the market created favourable circumstances for the final decision: the destination expanded, tourists headed for Rome, and there is definitely not enough regular blocks at the moment.’
‘Neva’ company explained their choice of a small Ciampino airport oriented at charters and low-cost air companies, saying that in winter period it is less loaded unlike central Fhimiccino. ‘Both airports are equally convenient for passengers, clients do not mind where they land,’ commented Lubov Chistyakova, anaging director of ‘Mondo tours’.
