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Eastern Europe
September 29, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 16
Passengers of bankrupt Russian VIM-avia are left at airports abroad
Vladimir Kozlov in Moscow
Thousands of passengers who bought flight tick- ets with the Russian airline VIM-avia are stuck at airports around the world after the airline went bust on September 16.
The troubled airline has cancelled or delayed dozens of flights over the last few days. Now the blame game has started after president Vladimir Putin made the collapse of the airline politi-
cal, publicly chastised Transportation Minister Maxim Sokolov and Deputy Prime Minister Akrady Dvorkovich for allowing VIM-avia to go bust in a tel- evised meeting with the cabinet on September 27.
In the early hours of September 28, homes of the air carrier's top managers were searched as a probe was opened into alleged embezzlement of passengers' money by the management, Business FM reported.
According to the report, VIM-avia's owner Rashid Mursekayev has also been detained and is being questioned in the Investigative committee, which contradicts previous reports that he fled Russia. General director Alexander Kochnev and chief ac- countant Yekaterina Panteleyeva have been de- tained, RIA Novosti reported.
Meanwhile, Tatarstan's agency for deposit insur- ance filed a bankruptcy lawsuit against VIM-avia, Russia's 10th largest airline.
It is not exactly clear at this point how many pas- sengers with valid tickets for VIM-avia flights
are to be affected, but it is likely to be tens of thousands. Those who bought tickets as part of packaged tours constitute the lion's share of the affected passengers.
Tourism industry players suggest that transfer of the bankrupt airline's flights to foreign carriers is
the only possible solution in this situation.
In Russia, there are not enough airlines that could carry all of VIM-avia customers, Sergei Tolchin, sales director at Intourist, was quoted as saying by TASS.
The airline's total outstanding debt has reached RUB7bn ($120mn), according to Alexander Ne- radko, head of the national aviation agency.
News about VIM-avia's problems came on Sep- tember 22 as its base airport, Moscow's Domod- edovo, refused to service the airline's flights over an unpaid bill of RUB500mn ($8.7mn).
The airline has since moved its flights to another Moscow airport, Vnukovo, but it has only worked as a temporary solution.
VIM-avia found itself in a difficult situation in late May and early June when the company delayed nearly 200 flights and dramatically reduced its charter programme. VIM Avia explained the situ- ation as due to servicing of its aircraft and insuf- ficient personnel.
The airline has traditionally focused on the sum- mer holiday season, cashing in during the sum- mer months and using the cash to support opera- tions during the rest of the year, but the reduction of the charter programme this year means it has not built up enough funds to get through the win- ter this year.
VIM Avia's problems come just two years after the biggest ever bankruptcy in Russia's civic aviation sector, that of Transaero. The airline was Russia's second largest airline until in October 2015 when its license was pulled due to inability to service RUB260bn ($4bn) worth of debt.