Aeroflot seeks increase in flight frequency

By Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI, DEC. 15. Aeroflot, Russian International Airlines, is seeking to increase its passenger service from New Delhi to Moscow in the new civil aviation bilateral talks slated to be held here in January.

The erstwhile Aeroflot-Soviet airline has already got the permission to launch a cargo freighter air service between Delhi and Moscow from January. The Iluyshin-76 freighter will transport defence supplies and consumer commodities once a week.

The General Director of Aeroflot-Russian Airlines, Mr. Valery M. Okulov, on a visit to New Delhi to seek a revision of the bilateral agreement with India, said there was much potential for cargo services between India and Russia. He met the Civil Aviation Minister, Mr. Sharad Yadav, and senior Defence Ministry officials in this regard.

The airline is also seeking to increase its frequencies from 10 flights per week to 14, between Delhi and Moscow. ``We want to operate two flights daily between Delhi and Moscow to give passengers the choice of flying either in the morning or evening,'' Mr. Okulov said here on Tuesday. The airline is famous in India for its low fares and will continue the tradition unless fuel prices make it difficult to do so.

The airline transports 2000 passengers a week between India and Russia on Boeing-777, Boeing-767 and Ilyushin-76. Besides the 10 frequencies between Delhi and Moscow, it operates two flights each between Mumbai and Moscow and Calcutta and Moscow. The airline reports a load factor of 70 per cent.

Asked whether Aeroflot was likely to pick up stake in Air India which is being divested, Mr. Okulov said though Aeroflot had a code-share partnership with Air India, it did not intend to buy stakes.

To another question, he said Aeroflot aircraft were equipped to operate under category-II foggy conditions. If visibility became poor during winter, the airline would use alternate airports for operations, ``but very sparingly''.

The Russian Ambassador in India, Mr. A. M. Kadakin, said the scheduling of bilateral talks on civil aviation was the result of the pacts between India and Russia during the visit of the Russian President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, with the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, in October. Aeroflot was the pioneering international airline to India. ``The first passenger jet plane to India was Aeroflot, a Tuplov-104.''

Aeroflot is a joint stock company with 51.17 per cent of the stock owned by the Russian Government. It operates to 126 destinations in 66 countries comprising 68 per cent of all the international air routes used by Russian airlines. It has a fleet of 113 airplanes and carried 4.6 million passengers in 1999.

The airline plans to join the Sky Team Alliance of Air France, Delta Airlines, Korean Airlines and Air Mexico.

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