FSVT seeks to close down one plane Russian airlines

Published: 1/6/2000

As part of its ongoing efforts to tighten the standards of the Russian air transport sector, Vladimir Andreyev, Director General of the FSVT, announced in a year end press conference that those operators currently operating only one aircraft would be prohibited from operating commercial passenger operations. According to unofficial figures, this should affect about 70 airlines in Russia. Among a series of other measures to tighten up operations by Russia"s 307 licensed air transport operators, Andreyev announced a regulation governing airlines" requirement to depreciate their aircraft effectively, so reserving for their replacement and reflecting current replacement costs of $1.5m for a 50% life expired Yak-42 and $3m for a Tu-154M. Airlines will also be required to present the FSVT with business plans covering at least two years. The regulatory objective is to focus the sector on those operators who are prepared and able to provide year round services, rather than those who simply operate in the highly profitable summer season and abandon routes in the winter. Andreyev sees the country"s 307 operators as being too numerous, given that 90% of the traffic is carried by the 20 largest airlines. He is therefore keen to encourage the merger of the smaller operators into either larger more viable concerns, or for them to be absorbed by larger operators, such as Sibir in Siberia. On the subject of rising fuel prices, Andreyev made it clear that he considered that the rises would lead to higher ticket prices. Commenting on the discrepancy in prices and supply from one region to another within Russia. Andreyev stated that he believed the problem lay with intermediaries, but offered no solution, as he could not understand why, when fuel was bought for $375 per tonne in Petropavolovsk-Kamchatsky, it could not attract supplies when offered for $275 in Khabarovsk.

Article ID: 1289