Translated material
Interrupted flight
Yuri Luzhkov abandoned the idea of an air taxi in Moscow
City officials have once again proven that they are ready, without any questions asked, to develop any of the most fantastic ideas of the Moscow mayor until he himself is convinced of its absurdity. At yesterday's meeting of the city government dedicated to discussing the Moscow Air Taxi target program, Yuri Luzhkov first reprimanded his deputy Joseph Ordzhonikidze for delaying the development of the project, and then actually buried the document. “An air taxi service in Moscow is an absolutely hopeless thing,” said the mayor, not remembering that until now he had held the exact opposite opinion.Mr. Luzhkov has always had a weakness for extravagant and expensive transport projects, be it a monorail or tunnel construction. However, the mayor’s swan song, of course, was to be the development of not only the above-ground, underground and water space, but also the air space of the capital. The first proposals to attack traffic jams with small aircraft at a meeting of the Moscow government were made back in 2001. Three years later, the mayor signed a decree “On the concept of the Moscow city target program for the development of air taxis,” giving his subordinates a year to turn the idea into a full-fledged program. At the same time, the mayor was not at all embarrassed by the fact that by directive of the General Staff Moscow was completely closed to flights, and federal rules allow flights over the capital only in two cases - to intercept air targets and eliminate emergency situations. It was not easy to carry out the mayor’s order, but in the end, the program developers finally got the military to agree to issue one-time permits for commercial aircraft to fly over the water surface of the Moscow River.
Despite the fact that it is much easier and cheaper to avoid traffic jams along the Moscow River by water tram than by helicopter, the authors of the project seized on the opportunity to fly over the main waterway of the capital and yesterday presented to the mayor a program for the construction of a dozen helipads in the city. Moreover, most of them were supposed to be located either on the banks of the river or directly above the water. However, after reading the document, a strong protest was made by the head of the department of natural resources management and environmental protection, Leonid Bochin, who discovered that the curator of the air taxi Joseph Ordzhonikidze decided to place helipads in Serebryany Bor, Trinity-Lykovo, Kolomenskoye, Losiny Ostrov, Bitsevsky Park, Sokolniki and other specially protected natural areas. “I am not against the project itself on its merits, but all this is prohibited by federal law,” Mr. Bochin said conciliatoryly, trying not to touch upon the very idea of the capital’s air taxi in case it was nevertheless supported by Mr. Luzhkov.
However, there was no need to appeal to federal legislation. The mayor of Moscow, apparently, made calculations right at the meeting and made a conclusion that apparently had not occurred to him until now: if the cost of a flight is more than a thousand dollars per hour, then a ticket for a Moscow air taxi will cost approximately $500. For this money, the passenger will be able to quickly move along the Moscow River at the appointed time, but only if he submits an application to the relevant authorities at least 24 hours in advance and receives permission to fly. Calling such a project “absolutely futile,” Yuri Luzhkov concluded the discussion by making an unexpected statement. “We are not discussing helicopter or airplane flights directly over Moscow as part of the air taxi problem! According to all the regimes that operate in relation to Moscow, this is practically impossible, especially when we are talking about a charter nature,” the mayor said, noting that the use of small aircraft makes sense only for flights between the capitals of Russian regions. “This is an absolutely necessary thing, and it must be organized on regular flights,” the mayor called for the revival of local airlines, which were very popular back in the Soviet Union.