Gatwick based Flight Directors get the job

Published: 3/23/2000

Sibir has signed an agreement with UK-based Flight Directors, to provide general sales agency in the UK and Ireland. Flight Directors (FD), which provides a similar service to airlines such as Avianca of Columbia and Air Europe of Spain, believes that Sibir can provide British business travellers and tourists with quicker access to Novosibirsk and avoid the time consuming routing through Moscow. According to Paul Argyle, Managing Director of FD, the company will provide Sibir with both sales and marketing support, promoting the airline directly to customers and agents in the UK and Ireland. FD's Sales Manager, Ian Lord, negotiated the deal with Sibir, with assistance from Moscow-based consultant Peter Smith, from Phoenix. Argyle uncertain of the current volumes on the route via Moscow, but plans to start routing passengers to Novosibirsk via Frankfurt this summer, and use the Novosibirsk hub to carry passengers onto other destinations in the region. Flight Directors believes that a large proportion of the traffic will come from passengers involved in the oil and mineral extraction business, but it still expects to see a flow of 'adventure' travellers, eager to explore the Siberian hinterland. The agreement with FD is part of an ongoing restructuring of Sibir's ticket sales, which has involved an expansion of its own outlets in Russia, the CIS and internationally, in addition to deals with agencies such as FD. The company has also recently adopted the Gabriel booking system for processing its ticketing.

Article ID: 1725