Stop treating air passengers as 'hostages'

Russian airlines UTair and S7 must step in to provide flights after stricken airline Transaero stopped serving Pacific capital Vladivostok, said Vladimir Miklushevsky.

'Don't forget that the winter vacation coming, and passenger traffic on these days will increase significantly. People should not be hostages to these difficult situations, and the authorities should quickly solve them.' 

While Aeroflot has upped capacity and is honouring Transaero tickets, there is still a shortage of seats on routes - especially to and from Moscow - that are critical for local people. 

'I intend to appeal to the management and owners of the companies S7 and UTair with a proposal to consider the possibility of direct flights between Moscow and Vladivostok using wide-bodied aircraft,' he said. 'I believe that the alternative carriers will increase competition and reduce the price of air tickets.'

Expressing outrage at the current situation, he said: 'Today just two flights from Moscow to Vladivostok are performed. With the existing passenger traffic, it is not enough. 'The cost of a ticket from a single carrier [Aeroflot] in this direction, with the purchase of tickets a few days before departure, has increased from three to five times.' Passengers face 'very unpleasant' indirect routings taking more than 24 hours to fly the route at an acceptable price, he said. 

S7 and UTair are both Siberian based carriers. UTair serves two Far Eastern destinations from Vnukovo (Moscow) to Pevek and Anadyr, both in Chukotka. S7 has flights from Novosibirsk to Vladivostok, Khabarovsk and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in its winter schedule. Other destinations also face problems as the fate of Transaero is decided, with S7 leading a rescue bid. Transaero was the main airline operating  from Moscow to Anadyr, Magadan and Blagoveshchensk.

Aeroflot CEO Vitaly Saveliev said:  'The Far East is a particularly sensitive region from the point of view of accessibility, as flying is really the only practical option. To solve the ticket deficit problems that arose after Transaero ceased flights, we launched additional flights and operated more spacious aircraft. We expect the situation will normalise in the near future, but ask passengers to understand the temporary complexity.'