AiRUnion will disappear this month.
by Kurt Hofmann.
Thursday September 11, 2008
AiRUnion COO Gustav Baldur said the struggling Russian airline alliance will be shut down at the latest by Sept. 30 (ATWOnline, Sept. 9).
Speaking to ATWOnline at an international symposium of the Austrian Aviation Assn., Baldauf said the AiRUnion project had failed.
"Now we will present a new concept [to the State of Russia] today in Moscow [to show] how a replacement airline project could be functional."
He added that the alliance will enjoy a state guarantee for fuel purchases until Sept. 14. After that date, Atlant-Soyuz, which also will be a member of the new alliance, will be the vehicle to operate AiRUnion flights until the end of the month. Then the first airline alliance in Russia will be history.
The new state-owned alliance, which should comprise nine carriers, will be owned 51% by Russian Technology with the other shares split between the cities of Krasnojarsk and Moscow.
Russian aviation experts told this website that the new airline cluster will be much more complex than the former AiRUnion, which included just five carriers, and expressed skepticism about the project. As yet, the new grouping does not have a name.
Credit: ATW online / Kurt Hofmann.
Bye, Chris.
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