tourist market

Yesterday, the Russian Union of Travel Industry (RST) sent a letter to the head of the State Civil Aviation Service of the Ministry of Transport, Alexander Neradko. PCT's appeal is caused by the critical situation with the departure of tourists from Sheremetyevo Airport. The airport demands payment for additional services, threatening to postpone charter flights.
This Wednesday, the management of Sheremetyevo International Airport (SIA) notified charter airlines operating flights from the first and second terminals that from Friday they could not guarantee the provision of daytime slots. In the event that travel agencies - customers of charters do not sign agreements with the airport for the provision of additional services, flight departures will be rescheduled for the morning or night.
Among the services that SIA wishes to provide to travel agencies are the consolidation of tourists into groups and organized passport control. For this, the airport asks $4-7 per person. “Sheremetyevo has been operating under this system since last year,” the SIA press service told Kommersant. “We did this to get funds that would allow us to improve the level of service and increase the airport’s capacity.”
Travel agencies, however, say that although MASH earned $5-7 million from additional fees last year, there was no noticeable improvement in service at the airport. Moreover, tour operators claim that they are unable to pay the airport. “$4-7 per person is a significant part of our profit,” says Alexander Sinigibsky, general representative of the Tez Tour company in Russia. “It is hardly possible to take this money from a tourist in conditions of fierce competition: many of our clients count every dollar.” However, rescheduling flights is not the best solution. “In this case, we will have to pay for an additional day of accommodation for each of our tourists abroad. For us, this is tens of thousands of dollars in losses,” says Mr. Sinigibsky.
In their disputes with SIA, tour operators refer to the law “On Natural Monopolies”, according to which the right to set tariffs for airport services belongs to the Federal Energy Commission (FEC). The FEC has already demanded that the fees be cancelled, but the airport does not want to comply. “The right to set tariffs is granted to us by the Civil Code,” says the SIA press service.
Meanwhile, according to PCT estimates, at least 15 charter flights should depart from Sheremetyevo this weekend, which is 3-4 thousand tourists. It’s not a fact that they will all get to go on vacation. “Since travel agencies fundamentally do not agree with illegal extortions from the airport, there is a danger that their tourists will not fly out on vacation in the coming days,” says PCT press secretary Irina Tyurina.
TIMUR Kommersant-BORDYUG

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 115 dated 07/04/2003, p. 5

Authors:

Timur Bordyug

Sheremetyevo demands money from tour operators