11/08/2019 17:00

Fuel redistribution

[IMG=18045-3436] The passenger traffic of foreign air-carriers in Russia during 6 months increased up to 11%, which is 9% more than the traffic of Russian air carriers. This information was given by Valery Okulov, general director of ‘Aeroflot’, when he gave a speech on the 11th of October at the ‘Wings of Russia’ forum. According to him, the ‘lucky expansion’ of foreign companies is in many ways caused by high operating costs of Russian equipment used by our air carriers. In an interview to a BANKO correspondent, operators confirmed the case: passenger market is being redistributed. Recently, for example, foreign air carriers’ offers are being more and more popular among tour operators for creating travel programs. ‘At the moment there is a demand for foreign air companies, this is why we have regular flights to Dubai, for instance, with Emirates and ‘Pakistani airlines,’ says Alexey Emelianov, the head of ‘IntAer’ charter flight department. Sergey Prigolovkin, the head of the board of directors of ‘PAX company’ also comments: ‘There is definitely an advent of foreign airlines on the Russian market but it is too early to talk about the ‘expansion’. 80% of our traffic is based on charter programs of Russian carriers who use foreign equipment, although we negotiated with two Croatian air carriers as well as one Slovenian and one Serbian. It is just not all foreign air carriers allow companies from other countries to have charter flights, plus their offers still lose to those of Russian airlines. However, in winter for example we use regular carrier ‘Adria’ to Slovenia.’ As for high operating costs of Russian equipment, the next rise in prices on fuel in September–October can really make it unprofitable for tour operators. ‘For instance, in our summer program to Split we used IL-86 which was absolutely competitive to foreign carriers. However its cost-effectiveness at the moment is questionable,’ pointed out Prigolovkin.