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Big Airlines Get State Credits
The Russian Finance Ministry has approved a plan to credit airline companies. According to unofficial information, no more than five airlines will receive credits, three of which were announced yesterday by First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov. They are Aeroflot, Transaero and Russian Airlines (founded by Rostekhnologia). Rosavia, belonging to the Moscow city administration, was also mentioned. Authorities are hoping to avoid another crisis in the airline industry and to soften the impact for passengers when financial control is taken over the companies.
Shuvalov reported the stabilization measures to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev yesterday. “Decisions have been made to change the situations,” ITAR-TASS quotes Shuvalov as saying, “including a decision by the Federal Antimonopoly Service to restrict the activities of companies that have raises the prices of aviation fuel and fines have been imposed on debtors.” He added that the Finance Ministry has proposed a plan to give out a total of 30 billion rubles in credit. A Transportation Ministry source told Kommersant that the criteria for crediting the airlines are being prepared. The source said that airlines that carry 1 million passengers or more per year and at least half of them on regularly scheduled flights will be eligible.
A spokesman for Transaero, which has claimed that it does not need state money, said that it has received a credit from Gazprombank “under conditions set by the government.” The size of that loan has not been disclosed. The airline is in negotiations with VTB and Sberbank as well. Rosavia has already reached an agreement with VTB for a loan of 5 billion rubles. Aeroflot has only commented that the state credit will “help the company in the winter low season.” Analysts note the absence of UTair and Sibir from the discussion. Sibir is in the process of updating its fleet, and UTair recently announced a tender for new planes. UTair general director Andrey Martirosov claims, however, that “the company is continuing to work with the banks that it has always cooperated with.”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 04, 2008
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Photo: Nikolay Cyiganov
