Aeroflot and Transaero fight over Italian sky
On November 29th yet another conflict between two Russia’s largest airlines went public. This time the air carriers failed to divide charter flights to Rome, Milan and Venice between each other. According to Transaero, October 28, 2011 the Rosaviation Commission approved the airline’s application to operate charter flights from Moscow to Rome, Milan and Venice. However on November 11, 2011 Rosaviation unexpectedly recalled these approvals from the protocol. Transaero had to address the Ministry of Transport pleading to prevent such illegal actions.
In reply to Transaero’s appeal Aeroflot declared that according to the interstate air traffic agreement in force, the right to operate flights on the said routes is given to appointed air carries, namely Aeroflot from the Russian side and Alitalia from the Italian. And Transaero, not being an appointed carrier and not having obtained the relevant admission, does not have the right to sell charter flights.
Yesterday Transaero reminded its forgetful opponent that the appointment of air carriers to operate charter flight is not being carried out at all. Besides that, according to the terms and conditions of the interstate air traffic agreement between Russia and Italy, there is no need in discussing charter flights with an appointed air carrier. The decision whether to allow a Russian airline to fly from Russia to Italy is made solely by Rosaviation. And in case of positive decision issued permissions can’t be recalled based on disagreement of a non-admitted air carrier. Thus Rosaviation’s decision to allow Transaero to operate the flights in question is completely legal.
Aeroflot referred to the situation as a shining example of pushing Rosaviation to do what Transaero needs. Transaero on the other hand sees that Aeroflot is the one who applies pressure in order to keep its monopoly on the second largest European destination in terms of the number of passengers. As a result both airlines asked Russian government to establish an intergovernmental commission to resolve the issue.
Transaero, too, appealed to the government seeking to modernize the approach to determination of approved air carriers using objective features, including the actual number of transferred passengers. The airline is sure that this will allow ruling out the cases of discriminatory decisions, as it was done with Mexico, Dominicana, India, Israel and other developing destination, that were all given to Aeroflot. At that, suggestions from European states to open major markets (Italy, France, Czech Republic, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Bulgaria etc.) are being simply ignored.
This is not the first conflict between two leading air carriers in Russia. Similar precedent happened in 2009, when at first Russian civil aviation authorities allowed Transaero to service Moscow-Larnaka route, and then under the pressure from Aeroflot made an attempt to cancel the permission. Transaero managed to assert its legal right only in court.
It’s hard to say how the Italian scenario will develop. As for now both parties refrain from commenting on the issue and stick to officialese statements. However RATA-news managed contact Transaero-tours Center and find out that the tour operator suspended sales of the flights in question “until further orders”.
Aeroflot eagerly guards its exclusive destinations, for example France. How many times have Russian tour operators been trying to launch charter flights to Nice, Paris and other cities – and every time they ran against Aeroflot fighting back tooth and claw. According to Director General of Paris Tourism and Congress Office Mr. Paul Roll, the tourist flow from Russia to France has been held back mostly because of Aeroflot’s and Air France’s monopolies and their too high airfares.
Charter flight to Rome, Milan and Venice, that caused the discord between Aeroflot and Transaero, are pretty much in demand, especially during the New Year festive season. The peak of demand for air tickets falls on the end of December, according to online booking engine momondo.ru it’s twice as much as in January. This period is also the peak of prices for air transportation. An itinerary starting in the end of December and ending in early January will be 50-150% more expensive than a similar one in the second half of January or February. Reasonably-priced Aeroflot tickets to New Year Europe are already impossible to come across. So Transaero’s entrance to the Italian market is not a Christmas fairytale for the National air carrier.