RusAvia rumoured to be involved with video thefts and forged permits (600 words)

Published: 1/24/2001

600 RusAvia's recent suspension, by Alexander Neradko, Director of the State Service of Civil Aviation (GSGA), for failure to return passengers from various holiday destinations, has highlighted the activities of some of Russia's second tier airlines. The story revealing the airline's problems emerged in late December. It was given added spice when, a TV crew from RTR were held up on the road from Shermetyevo to Moscow, by a group of masked men, who then beat them and stole their airline interview tapes. Having been accused of orchestrating the attack, the airline received extremely negative publicity over the ensuing days contributing to the intervention of the GSGA. According to sources within the GSGA, although there is no clear evidence, they suspect that RusAvia was responsible for the journalists' beating (given their assessment of Likhachev, former Head of Foreign Relations in the Soviet Ministry of Civil Aviation). Prime Minister Kasyanov, according to the same sources, met with Neradko to demand an investigation and prompted them into action. In subsequent television interviews, the General Director of RusAvia, Boris Likhachev, claimed that the flight failures were due to the tardy provision of over-flight permits by some countries. It has been subsequently revealed that, he also had simultaneous problems with permits from the GSGA itself. On 12th January, Neradko informed the press that RusAvia did have “licenses” and “permits” to fly tourists to certain destinations, under contracts from tour agencies. However, the airline did not have sufficient aircraft available, (RusAvia leased all of its aircraft, to fulfill those contracts, largely to South East Asia), due to a combination of late application for over-flight permits and technical problems with Il-62s.The GSGA then appealed to other airlines to fulfill the contracts. Neradko did not specify which carriers agreed to cooperate, but said that the airlines had responded, to protect the image of Russian airlines for both passengers and travel agencies. GUAP Pulkovo subsequently undertook two flights - to bring tourists back - out of the six, that RusAvia was unable to undertake. All passengers were then returned by other airline by 16th January. At a press conference on 16th January, Neradko said that, RusAvia had taken more business than it was capable of handling over the busy New Year period. He also added that the documents approving some of the flights were forgeries - made without the knowledge of the officials whose signatures had appeared on them. Rusavia - officially called “International Aviation and Transport Corporation MATK Rusavia” - was founded in 1997, as a joint venture between a number of Russian companies involved in aviation, including: Aviazakaz (spare part deliveries); AviaExpressCruise (airline); AFES (insurance company); Svetloyar-Avia (aircraft repair); MTK Sirena (Sirena flight management and ticket reservation systems); bankrupt TransEuropean Airlines; and others (in all 30 companies, including 12 airlines). MATK Rusavia had undertaken a variety of business activities, including: aircraft leasing (notably, the operational leases of several Il-62s to Aeroflot in 1998); production of flight recorders and other hardware; computer systems for flight trajectory; and cockpit instruments using data from flight recorders and other aircraft instrumentation/avionics. MATK Rusavia acquired its operating license in the spring of 1998. At this time, Boris Likhachev announced that the operator's license was needed - to facilitate leasing deals for used and newly-built aircraft (particularly with BAC 1-11s in mind) for leasing on to Russian operators. In 1998 the company declared its plans to acquire five Il-96 and Tu-204 aircraft, in order to lease them to other operators - this failed to materialize. Curiously, the Rusavia main office is in the GSGA Building and on the same floor as the GSGA Director's offices.

Article ID: 2318