The taxi has arrived

Air carriers have their first aircraft

The organizers of the DEXTER air taxi project received the first plane last Friday. It is planned to deploy this new service for Russia using six-seat light M-101T aircraft, which are produced by the Nizhny Novgorod Sokol aircraft plant. The plant handed over such a machine to the Avia Management Group (AMG) company, the operator of the DEXTER project, at the Moscow Vnukovo airport. Earlier, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of AMG, Evgeniy Andrachnikov, promised that the first commercial air taxi flights would be made along the Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod route.

True, in December last year, when Mr. Andrachnikov made this statement, it was expected that the project would unfold somewhat faster. The start of commercial operation was scheduled for last February 2006, and by that time the company should have had two M-101T aircraft. Although the real launch of AMG, as is now clear, will happen somewhat later, the company’s further plans remain in force. It plans to operate 15 light aircraft by the end of this year, increasing its fleet to 45 in 2007 and 250 by 2015, Mr. Andrachnikov said last Friday. The aircraft are available in four- and six-seat configurations.

AMG, 75% of whose capital belongs to the Industrial Investors investment group of former Minister of Fuel and Energy Sergei Generalov, and another 25% is controlled by the Kaskol group of entrepreneur Sergei Nedoroslev, plans to engage in passenger and cargo air transportation between populated areas (at least 17 cities) in a radius of 1100 km from Moscow, which currently do not have direct air connections with the capital, or with each other. It is assumed that AMG will offer customers flights both on a regular schedule and on individual orders. Air taxis will depart from the business terminal of Vnukovo-3 airport; the registration and boarding procedure will take about 15-20 minutes. The cost of services is expected to be at the level of business class tickets for “big” airlines. Mr. Andrachnikov said at the end of last year that AMG plans to divide the territory within a radius of 1000 km around Moscow into five zones of 200 km each. The cost of the flight will be highest in the first zone - 23 rubles. per kilometer - and cheaper in the fifth - 15 rubles. per kilometer. For charter flights - 140--120 rubles. per kilometer for the entire plane.

Kaskol and Industrial Investors invested about $10 million of their own funds into the project. However, to further develop DEXTER they will have to resort to loans, since ordering 45 M-101T aircraft alone will cost approximately $67.5 million.

Meanwhile, the air taxi alliance AiRUnion (which unites Krasair, Domodedovo Airlines, Samara, Omskavia, Sibaviatrans and Bashkir Airlines) is going to create its own air taxi service in Siberia, its president Alexander Abramovich, who was present at the meeting, told reporters. last Friday at the AMG presentation. According to him, for this purpose, the alliance intends to buy six-seat Russian M-201T aircraft within the next month. “We can talk about at least ten aircraft. Anything less makes no sense,” he was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Mr Abramovich said the alliance would create a separate company for its air taxi project or appoint one of its member airlines as the operator, focused on regional transport. He cited Sibaviatrans as an example of such a company. The base of the new business, says Mr. Abramovich, will be Krasnoyarsk.

Mikhail KUKUSHKIN