They were underway

The leadership of the "Saratov Airlines" announced the stop of the work. But immediately changed his mind

In the Saratov region, the only civilian airport and the regional airline were nearly under the threat of closing. The company's management announced the stop of work in connection with the actions of the Federal Air Transport Agency, which prohibited the sale of tickets for Saratov Airlines from May 30. 1200 employees, including 100 flights, were supposed to be dismissed from July 18. The Saratovites expressed fears that the city would be left without air communication, because all the buildings on the territory of the Saratov airport are owned by Saravia.

A letter came to the Saratov airline signed by the head of the Department of Regulation of the Transportation of the Federal Air Transport Agency Andrei Kruglov. The document says that from May 30, the sale and booking of tickets for all flights of Saratov Airlines is suspended. According to the representatives of the carrier, the letter looks strange: the text of the date is confused in the text, the position of the addressee is not indicated. Nevertheless, on the day of receipt, the letter was published on the official website of the airline.

“Airlines regard this document as the introduction of restrictions on the operator’s certificate. The leadership of Saratov Airlines JSC decided to stop the enterprise from May 31 and forced to dismiss employees from July 18, 2018, ”the company’s website said.

Recall that in February of this year, the An-148 “Saratov Airlines”, flying from Moscow to Orsk, crashed in the suburbs. All 65 passengers and 6 crew members were killed. In March, the Federal Air Transport Agency ordered Saratov carriers to suspend the An-148 flights. In April, the head of the agency, Alexander Neudko, suggested that the company voluntarily abandon the operator’s certificate and “focus on airport activities”.

The current claims of the regulator were a complete surprise to the airline. The day before, the company representatives reported in Moscow about the elimination of all previously identified violations, "the document was adopted without comments in full." A few hours before the application for the stop of the work of Saravia, it has laid out the solemn news about rebranding and updating the aircraft park.

Today, “Saratov Airlines” operate 13 An-148, Yak-42 and Embraer aircraft. Four flights to Moscow are made from Saratov daily, three times a week to St. Petersburg, flights in Sochi, Anapa, Gelendzhik, Simferopol, Antalya and Thessaloniki are added in the summer. In total, more than 40 routes are served. Last year, 796 thousand passengers were transported. This is 58 percent more than in 2016.

About 70 thousand tickets have already been sold in June -October. In resort directions from Saratov, no one else flies.

The Saratov market is not too attractive for air carriers - local residents have no way to buy expensive tickets. As the Saratov blogger Denis Zhabkin notes, in four years, four nonresident companies received slots for flights to Moscow, but only Aeroflot flies from them.

“Saratov Airlines” owns the buildings of the airport, technical base, fuel complex, cars, etc. In regional ownership is only a land plot. This is a situation atypical for domestic air transport. According to Mikhail Gerasimenko, First Deputy General Director of the Saratov Airlines in the commentary, "in case of stopping work, the enterprise will not have funds for maintaining the airport, so it will be closed." In this case, the region would be left without air communication. The nearest airports are located in Penza (the distance from Saratov is 197 kilometers in a straight line) and Saransk (300 kilometers).

It should be noted that the owners of Saravia are in tense relations with the regional authorities. The company, which was state-owned in 1994, belongs to Arkady Evstafyev, a well-known wide public on the history of a photographic box ( this scandalous case is associated with financing the elections of the President of Russia in 1996 - ed. ). The businessman was not controlled by the Speaker of the State Duma of Vyacheslav Volodin, which, by Saratov standards, is already a great freedom.

PS

While preparing the material, the application for stopping work disappeared from the Saratov Airlines website. According to the company, at an emergency meeting of the board of directors, the issue of fulfilling the requirements of state bodies was considered in order to remove restrictions on the operator’s certificate. All obligations to counterparties and passengers will be fulfilled in full. ”