December 08, 2016, 19:22 / Business

Why did Aeroflot cancel so many flights?

At the beginning of December, flights from Moscow were canceled en masse only by the national carrier Alexander Vorobyov

Aeroflot cancels both Russian and international flights / S. Nikolaev / Vedomosti

Aeroflot canceled 138 flights from/to Sheremetyevo airport on December 7-9, citing unfavorable weather conditions. In total, from December 1 to December 9, he canceled 262 Moscow flights. Aeroflot operates over 600 flights daily from/to Sheremetyevo.

“Abnormal weather conditions mean an increased load on airport services: during periods of difficult weather conditions (freezing rain, blizzards, heavy snowfall), the capacity of the runways due to the need to clear snow is reduced from 55 to 32 takeoff and landing operations (ATO) per hour. As the base airline of Sheremetyevo, Aeroflot forms its schedule based on 47-48 VPO. Also, aircraft turnover is affected by the need to treat them with anti-icing fluid,” explained the Aeroflot press service. A Sheremetyevo representative confirmed this reduction in capacity in the current weather conditions. Over the past two years, the airport has updated its snow removal fleet by 62%; 70 units of equipment are now used to clear the airfield - all this has reduced the time it takes to close the runway for clearing from 45 to 15 minutes.

Some flights are canceled to prevent a transport collapse, which could block the operation of the airline and the airport for a long time, an Aeroflot representative explained. The company's in-house forecasters analyze the meteorological picture, and if it is assessed as unfavorable, then the flight plan is adjusted in advance, sometimes several days in advance - Aeroflot will pay approximately 450 million rubles for services to Roshydromet this year.

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Advance warnings reduce inconvenience for passengers, who can adjust their plans and avoid unnecessary congestion at the airport.

Other airlines flying to Sheremetyevo did not cancel flights en masse due to the weather. True, Aeroflot forms over 80% of Sheremetyevo’s passenger traffic and no one else operates a large number of flights from this airport. At other Moscow airports - Vnukovo and Domodedovo - flights were not canceled in December due to weather conditions. In mid-November, during the cold snap, only Aeroflot also canceled a significant number of flights from Moscow.

Fighting collapse or costs?

Why is that? Two managers of Moscow airports and a manager of a large airline admit that Aeroflot, under the pretext of weather, is canceling flights for which few tickets have been sold in order to reduce costs. The manager of another airline is sure that this is the reason for the cancellations: it’s obvious, the entire Moscow air hub (UIA) is working, and only Aeroflot is being hindered by the weather! An Aeroflot representative categorically denies this. “Such statements have nothing to do with reality,” he says, admitting that this version is now being actively discussed on social networks.

Aeroflot vs. Transaero: comparison of giants Aeroflot vs. Transaero: comparison of giants

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Aeroflot is the largest Russian air carrier. In 2014, the group - which includes six airlines - carried 34.7 million passengers. During the year, 13.2 million people used the services of the second largest air carrier, Transaero. At the end of the first half of 2015, the Aeroflot group occupied 31.2% of the passenger transportation market (17.9 million people used the company’s services), Transaero - 11.4% (5.8 million people)

/ Maxim Blinov / RIA Novosti

“Comparison of the situation at Sheremetyevo and other airports in the Moscow air hub is incorrect. They differ in throughput and the actual amount of work performed. Suffice it to say that in the past 24 hours, December 7, during difficult weather conditions, 709 air defense operations were carried out at Sheremetyevo - more than at any other capital airport,” adds a company representative.

“This practice of thinning schedules in bad weather conditions is typical for many large European airlines in their hubs. During abnormal weather, there are at least small delays in servicing ships, which accumulate, shift the entire schedule and can lead to collapse,” says a top manager at a Moscow airport (not Sheremetyevo). American airlines are especially known for this; in the United States, airports have a very tight schedule - the weather only gets worse, and they do not hesitate to cancel some flights, says a top manager of a large airline.

It’s all about the weather, another top manager of the Moscow airport is sure: a lot depends on where the cyclone is coming from: now it is moving from the north and almost does not reach Vnukovo from Domodedovo; It happens that we are standing still, and Sheremetyevo is working.

Cancel what?

Aeroflot cancels both Russian and international flights. In the last three days, when cancellations were most widespread, the most popular destinations did not fall under the knife - Paris, London, Rome, Milan, Tel Aviv, Alma-Ata, Astana, New York, Prague. Aeroflot is a Russian monopolist on them. Although in early December flights to Paris, Rome, and Alma-Ata were canceled. “The decision to cancel a certain number of flights is made based on weather conditions as a safety net to avoid a possible collapse. But then, of course, they look and select for cancellation the least loaded flights, those whose passengers can be transported on earlier or later flights in a given direction without organizing additional flights,” says a person close to the Aeroflot group.

“First of all, [when deciding to cancel flights] the weather conditions at a particular point in time and the situation with peaks at Sheremetyevo airport are taken into account. And the low load on aircraft is taken into account only as an additional factor,” Aeroflot Deputy General Director Vadim Zingman said at a press conference today (quoted by Interfax).

History of the Ryumka pavilion History of the Ryumka pavilion

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The airport terminal building was built in 1964 according to the design of architects G. Elkin and G. Kryukov. From the book “Sheremetyevo International Airport”. 50 years of history." Moscow, 2009

/ V. Budan / pastvu.com