Published: 5/22/1998

The Siberia Air Company is planning to become a leader on local routes, company general director Vladislav Filev told ConCISe."We are able to satisfy up to 60% of the regional needs for air transportation," Filev said.In his words, the company's strategy will aim at "an access of broad population layers to air transportation." The company will achieve the goal in co-operation with the Novosibirsk regional administration through the use of 30 aircraft. The summer schedule was announced by the company early in May. New routes are to be flown, including two flights a week from Novosibirsk to Baku and one flight a week to Dushanbe, Norilsk, Mirny, Odessa, Blagoveshchensk, Simferopol and Mineralnye Vody. It is planned to make more frequent flights to Alma Ata, Tashkent, Yerevan, Vladivostok, Irkutsk, Krasnodar, St.Petersburg, Sochi and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The company will be able to transport 645,000 passengers this year, 45,000 more than in 1997. Siberia AC is one of Russia's seven largest air companies. Its priority is passenger flights and it has a large maintenance base to service various aircraft. Last year these facilities generated about Rbs600bn (old roubles)for the company. (AL598.2) (VZ)  

Article ID: 170