DUSHANBE, September 24, 2008, Asia-Plus — 20 passengers with tickets for the flight Moscow-Dushanbe operated by Domodedovo Airlines have been waiting for the flight for several hours. Such a situation has been reported at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport since September 18.
In the meantime, speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Parviz Shodmonov, representative of the Russian airline alliance AirUnion, which comprises five regional airlines including Krasair and Domodedovo Airlines, in Tajikistan said that some 500 passengers managed to fly from Moscow to Dushanbe on September 23.
According to him, such a situation will last most likely until October and it is connected with replacement of administration of the alliance.
Meanwhile, some persons who had bought tickets for the flight Moscow-Dushanbe operated by the Domodedovo Airlines could not bear many-day delays any longer and were compelled to buy tickets to the flight operated by another air carrier.
“Nobody has reimbursed our expenses and one may gather the impression that such a situation is created artificially in the interest of separate individuals who profit from this situation,” one of passengers, who wanted to remain unidentified, told Asia-Plus.
According to some Russian media, Vitaly Vantsev, co-owner of Moscow’s Vnukovo airport, will head the alliance and licenses of Krasair and a number of other air carriers will be revoked.
The new holding being created by Russian state-controlled corporation Rostekhnologii will include Atlant-Soyuz, Krasair, Rossiya, Kavminvodyavia, Orienburg Airlines, Saratov Airlines and Vladivostok-avia. Vitaly Vantsev will be director general and chairman of the board of the new air holding.
We will recall that AirUnion left thousands of passengers stranded in late August and in September when it grounded scores of its planes across Russia after suppliers halted fuel deliveries over the company”s debts. The alliance was forced to ground flights in late August at the height of the holiday season, when fuel suppliers started to shut off supplies to the company. Flights from Moscow”s Domodedovo airport, the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk and airports in the Far East were particularly affected.
According to some media, AirUnion — the third-largest operator of domestic flights — faces debts of more than US$1 billion, exacerbated by escalating jet fuel costs since the beginning of the year. Operating aged Russian-built planes, its fleet consumes far more fuel than more efficient Airbus and Boeing planes, say analysts.
