Russia’s air transport agency Rosaviatsiya is set to overhaul rules governing access to international services in a drive to improve flight regularity, customer satisfaction and airlines’ competitiveness.
The proposed review lays out procedures for admitting new entrants to cross-border routes while taking away route rights from incumbent carriers who do not use them fully and draw customer complaints.
“This will address situations where operators provide services sporadically or delay and cancel flights arbitrarily because of insufficient capacity,” says Rosaviatsiya chief Yevgeny Bachurin.
“In effect, they yield the assigned frequencies on particular routes to the benefit of foreign rivals. We want to instill more transparency and accountability in that respect.”
Regulators would suggest revoking a license from an operator if it proves uncompetitive before its foreign counterpart or the number of cancelled and delayed flights on the route exceeds 10%.
The draft regulation is expected to come into force ahead of the summer travel season after receiving clearance from the legal department of Russia’s justice ministry.
It has been designed to complement bilateral air agreements defining the number of designated carriers and frequencies for international city pairs on a parity basis.
Bachurin says Russian airlines will be able to step in for the failed operators only through competitive bidding whereby they will have to produce proof of sound operational performance, safety record and adequate capacity.
He adds: “Likewise, if bilateral agreements will provide for more slots we’ll apply the same rigorous selection criteria to operators willing to take advantage of them.”
Source: flightglobal.com's sister premium news site Air Transport Intelligence news
Source: FlightGlobal.com
