Russian State Statistics Agency reports that two thirds of Russian airlines suffered losses in the first quarter

Published: 8/4/1999

According to the Russian State Statistics Agency (Rosstatagenstvo) almost two-thirds of Russian airlines made losses in the 1Q 1999. Rosstatagenstvo reported that 64.1% of Russia's airlines were loss making in 1Q 1999 under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS). It is important to note that if International Accounting Standards had been used the figure would have been considerably higher. The airline sector's performance was worse than that of the transport sector (including shipping companies) and substantially worse than for Russian companies overall. It seems likely that the sector will see continued poor figures for the foreseeable future as the sector shakes out those businesses that are currently beyond redemption and sees the others merge or absorbed by larger more efficient carriers. The casual observer should be careful however, not to associate what a government statistics agency publishes too closely with what is happening on the ground. The situation is poor, but Russian enterprises are not notoriously keen to pay tax, cold stats can often hide a situation less perilous than at first glance. Lossmaking companies: ·Air transport sector64.1% ·Overall transport sector58.8% ·All Russian companies43.6% Source: Rosstatagenstvo

Article ID: 728