‘There is an opinion that in 3 months flights to Egypt will be resumed
The aviation industry of Tatarstan is waiting for the flights to Egypt to return
The era of cheap tours abroad is over: Turkey and Egypt are unavailable, and due to the appreciation of the euro, it is expensive to plan holidays not only in Europe but also in neighbouring Azerbaijan. Against of a background of price rise in tickets and bogeyman stories about the danger of traveling, many people prefer to stay at home: the passenger flow of the airports of Tatarstan is decreasing by 10%. Experts of the sector think that this panic is artificial, and they are waiting for the flights to Egypt to be back very soon.
Flights to Egypt may be resumed in spring
'The total dynamics is almost the same at all airports. The passenger flow is decreasing,' declared Feliks Kozlov (on the poster), the marketing director of the airport of Begishevo, during a round-table talk of RBK-Tatarstan. According to him, this year passenger flow to Turkey has dropped by 30%, to Egypt – by 47%, while it has increased by 34% to Sochi and by 40% to Crimea. 'We plan to complete the year with 360,000-370,000 of passengers, for instance, last year they numbered 407,000,' he said. What is more, the flights to Turkey and Egypt accounted for almost 16% of passenger flow of 'Begishevo' in 2015. For example, in 2014, it was equal to 21%. We remind you that the airport of Kazan also mentioned a slump in passenger flow by 7,9% for 9 months in 2015. At the same time, the number of passengers of domestic flights ramped up by 8,3%.
'There is an opinion that in 3 months flights to Egypt will be resumed. The matter concerns the provision of air safety. If Egypt fixes the infringements, this issue can be brought up. The first news has come today: cargo flights will be permitted; they will transport products that are not delivered from Turkey,' informed Kozlov.
As for Turkey, the decision won't be made soon, according to the speakers. 'If they forbade both regular and charter flights to Egypt, only charter flights to Turkey could be discussed. 'Regular flights remained, and we managed to save our flight of Atlasglobal airline (Editor's Note: Atlasjet till 2015). After small adjustments in the schedule, we concluded that it would be preserved in 2016. Every one perfectly understands that in Zakamye, especially in Alabuga, there are many Turkish companies, a Turkish construction is carried out, and there is a need in regular flights despite the sanctions,' tells Kozlov.
Fear of flights is artificially created by functionaries and the press
In his opinion, in this situation, Russian resorts will be in demand, but for going to Krasnodarsky Krai and Crimea there will be package tours, this practice is already being applied. He reminds that a few people can afford themselves to fly to Europe with the current value of the euro. 'There is one more problem: Europe is not safe any more. No one refused the problem with refugees, Europe is awash with them. And the visa matter influences as well,' according to the marketing director of 'Begishevo'.
In Rustem Tarzimanov, the sales director of Salavat Lufthansa City Center, the reduction of the effective revenue of the population affected domestic flights and travels abroad. International tourism suffered a lot owing to the fact that there are constant currency fluctuations and political moments concerning terrorist attacks in France and ban on flights to Turkey and Egypt. He forecasts that all in all many agencies will leave the market.
'Safe places scarcely exist, including in Russia. But the tendency of November is that there is a psychological pressure on people from the media or somewhere else: people simply are afraid of traveling. Many of them say that if there are restrictions on international flights, there will be a growth in the number of domestic flights. I don't agree with this opinion because people fear to fly in principle. One organization, Rospotrebnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare) perhaps, said that people must stay at home on New Year's Day. It, undoubtedly, doesn't make the situation better,' Tarzimanov complained.
Azamat Sabirov, the director general of AVT tourism company, supported his colleague saying that, 'The situation with the Turkish airlines is temporary, and many companies optimize flights because of the slump in sales. We have a feature to belabour a point during several weeks. People are in panic, they think they must sit at home'. He also confirmed that now the airports of Egypt are being examined whether they are safe, and cargo flights are resumed. 'One can fly as a cargo without worries,' he said.
Sabirov simultaneously admits that the ban on flights was a shattering blow, package holiday died. He opines there will be a new market that was formed in Europe 5-6 years ago. It is combined tours: transfer and hotel are offered separately. He does not deny that these tours will be more expensive for the clients. There are some difficulties in the attraction of new airlines to Kazan; it is what the airport of Kazan staked on. 'We met with Wizz Air company, and its representative asked who would fly. If I find operators for the domestic tourism that are ready for 100-seat block bookings, we'll fly.'
And Tarzimanov noted that tickets to Europe can be cheap, but passengers might refuse them because of high prices for accommodation. 'When a person starts to count he or she understands that it's necessary to pay for hotel and food. When the euro is continuously growing… Due to the euro, there is a small probability that European airlines will be here now,' he ended.
Is Azerbaijan a new Europe for the Russians?
'It is a big joke that Jordan will substitute Egypt. Israel is one of the new directions. Now Red Wings is questioning the Jewish whether they will be finally ready to give a 100-seat Superjet. For the Russians it is still a bit more interesting to rest, including in their resorts: 'I've never been in Crimea, nor Altai, nor Baikal,' says the speaker. 'And now there will be a new tweet that Abkhazia was annexed to Russia, and they will allude to Azamat,' Kozlov told a joke.
The reduction of business credit also have a negative impact on the sector, and, as a consequence, the companies develop slower. 'Airlines said that from 2016 they won't get paid anything. It means that we will have to find something on our own, and the total price in the market will grow. Aeroflot will raise prices for the tickets because it understands that it has a reduction of passenger seats. 2016 will be an interesting year. Now everyone is an optimist, but in summer the situation will change if the Central Bank doesn't decide to help the business,' he stated. 'Cheap tours are over, guys,' the businessman resumed.
As for the very airlines, they also start to optimize their work and save money on passengers creating special tariffs without luggage or non-refundable tickets like low-cost airlines. 'It is said that last year Uzbekistan Airlines even weighed its passengers. The situation when you will have to pay for extra kilos is around the corner. You will have to lose weight,' Sabirov grins. It probably connected with the center gravity of a plane and the load. 'It is possible that they weighed them because many people from CIS countries save money on everything and just put things on avoiding payments for extra weight,' said Nikolai Podosenov, the representative of Avia Traffic Company (Kyrgyzstan) and Azerbaijan Airlines at the same time, defending his colleagues.
There are growing directions as well. For instance, Podosenov said that passenger flow of Azerbaijan Airlines has increased by 75% for a year and 2 flights per week in summer were not enough. 'There are many interesting directions for tourism in Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is Europe, and it needs much money. It is much more expensive than Turkey at 40-50,000 rubles for two people. With Kyrgyzstan the situation is simple: the price tag is cheaper: €200-300 is the cost of a round-trip flight. But we cannot transfer a person and be responsible then for he or she. This is why it is necessary to sell packages. We cannot sell flights, insurance and accommodation separately,' he complained.
The representative of Begishevo mentioned Greece as one of the few developing directions. 'We have a request of one tour operator for 2016 to perform flights to Rhodes while in 2015 we didn't have charter flights to Europe,' Kozlov informed. And Sabirov said that in spring the Czech airlines can reach Kazan. 'Yesterday I talked to the airport. And it is very probable that they will be here in April.'
In addition, he reminded that the population of Tatarstan is equal to 3,8m, it has 3 airports, 2 of them are international. At the same time, in our neighbouring Bashkiria whose population is 4m has only one airport. 'You should understand how difficult it is to develop air carriers for every airport because of the competitiveness with Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. It explains that when our airports say that they increased something, a monument must be erected to the management,' Sabirov concluded.