One of two

It's decided with Rossiya, Rosavia remains

A meeting on the fate of the Rosavia project, chaired by First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov (pictured) on Friday, did not clarify this issue. The secretariat of Mr. Shuvalov told Vremya Novostey that they could not comment on whether any decisions were made at this meeting. Several other sources in government and aviation circles said they knew nothing about the outcome of the meeting. Now the Rosavia problem will most likely be resolved personally by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. This can be indirectly judged by the statement made by the Governor of St. Petersburg Valentina Matvienko. She told reporters that at a meeting with the First Deputy Prime Minister, the development concept of the Rossiya airline was approved, and for final approval, the document will be presented to the Prime Minister this week.

The issue of developing the State Customs Committee "Russia" is part of a broader problem: what to do with state aviation assets transferred in 2008 to the management of the state corporation "Russian Technologies". FSUE State Customs Committee "Russia" is the largest of them. In addition, the state corporation received from the state Vladivostokavia, Orenburg Airlines, Kavminvodyavia, Sakhalin Air Routes and Saratov Airlines. After the project of merging these six airlines, as well as the Moscow government company Atlant-Soyuz and creating a new national air carrier Rosavia on their basis, was virtually buried in 2009, in January of this year two new competing ideas arose regarding these assets. The first is to merge airlines on the basis of Aeroflot. It was put forward by Transport Minister Igor Levitin. An alternative proposal was made by RT General Director Sergei Chemezov: to merge the companies with the private S7 group of companies. Both projects provided that a controlling stake in the “enlarged” airline would remain in the hands of the state, but different groups of officials would represent its interests. It was expected that at a meeting with First Deputy Prime Minister Shuvalov on January 29, a choice would be made in favor of one of two options, but this did not happen. Sources at Aeroflot and the Ministry of Transport told Vremya Novostey yesterday that the meeting had taken place, but its results would not be known until Monday.

The only one who has already allowed herself a public comment on the content of Friday’s event was the Governor of St. Petersburg, Valentina Matvienko. On Saturday, she told reporters that she was satisfied with the way Moscow approached the issue of the future of the Rossiya State Customs Committee. “A concept has been developed that suits the city very much. It will be reported to the Prime Minister this coming week, and if he makes a satisfactory decision, it will be adopted,” RIA Novosti quotes Ms. Matvienko. Madam Governor emphasized that St. Petersburg will remain the airline’s registered place, and after corporatization (now State Transport Company Rossiya has the legal form of a Federal State Unitary Enterprise), the blocking stake will be transferred to the city.

“Our hub will be developed on its basis, a new airline will be formed on its basis with an expanded composition, and a mandatory condition is that 25% plus one share belong to the city,” the governor noted, without specifying what she means by “expanded » by airline. A source familiar with the situation around Rosavia expressed the opinion to Vremya Novostey that the government is unlikely to consider the fate of the Rossiya State Transport Company in isolation from questions about other assets of this failed structure. If so, then the choice in favor of merging them with Aeroflot or S7 will apparently have to be made at the premiere.

Mikhail KUKUSHKIN