Translated material
Sibir bought a tour operator
As S7 Group press officer Igor Volkov told Vremya Novostey yesterday, S7 Tour acquired 90% of TES shares. The remaining 10% remained in the hands of TES founder Alexander Osintsev, who until now was the sole owner of this company. Mr. Osintsev combined the positions of President and General Director of TES. He will retain the first of these positions in the future, but will move away from the operational management of the travel company, Mr. Volkov said. According to unofficial data, the new CEO of TES will be a representative of the S7 Group, financier Anatoly Rainchik. Mr. Volkov neither confirmed nor denied this information, saying that the candidacy for the general director has not been finally determined.
At first, S7 Tour and TES will continue to operate under their current brands. By the fall, employees of the two companies should move into one office. Then, perhaps, a common brand will appear.
According to Mr. Volkov, S7 Tour expects to double its current volume of operations (number of tourists sent) by joining TES. On the most popular routes - Egyptian and Turkish, where S7 Tour is still actively operating itself - the number of shipments should increase by 25 and 15%, respectively.
The consolidation of the tour operator division of S7 Group is associated with the group’s plans to organize its own charter airline. Legally, S7 Charter was already organized in January of this year. For now, it is working with the regular airline S7 Airlines (also known under the old name “Siberia”) on the basis of fleet sharing. After the end of the summer season, the holding intends to provide S7 Charter with its own fleet of Russian and imported aircraft available to S7 Airlines. In addition, a contract was signed with the American corporation Boeing for the supply of ten new Boeing-737-800 aircraft in 2010-2011.
The consolidation of the tour operating division should ensure sales of services to the growing charter company. Mr. Volkov announced yesterday that it is planned to merge S7 Ticket, the ticket agency of the S7 Group holding, with S7 Tour. In addition, he did not rule out that other independent tour operators will be bought after TES. The amount of the transaction between S7 Group and TES was kept secret.