Airline attacks charter carriers

Published: 3/21/2000

Air Kazakhstan, now part of AKG, has launched a vigorous attack on the country's 50 charter airline operators, arguing that they are giving the country a bad name, due to poor operational practises and mounting debts. Citing cases of aircraft belonging to charter carriers being seized at foreign airports for non-payment of landing fees and ATC charges, Air Kazakhstan said that foreign clients of the airline were losing confidence in Air Kazakhstan in the Kazak aviation market. As a result, it was informing potential clients that it and the charter airlines were not one and the same. Air Kazakhstan accused the charter carriers of frequently changing their legal entities, running illegal flights under the names of other carriers and even altering call signs, when crossing the Kazakhstan borders, in order to escape detection. It also alleged that the charter carriers were selling tickets on unauthorised flights and then using blackmail to try and get the flights authorised, or simply cancelling them, having obtained passengers' money. It further claims that several flights have been refused permission to take off. The airline's press service ends its diatribe with the recommendation that passengers should choose official airlines, in preference to the carriers. The more cynical would observe that this attack, while undoubtedly highlighting a problem in the industry, may be prompted more by the precarious condition of AK, than the airline's desire to preserve the good name of the Kazakhstan aviation market.

Article ID: 1712