Carriers will study the personnel readiness of the Airport of Abkhazia to accept flights
According to Kommersant, ifly can launch flights to Sukhum this summer with the involvement of the Bibli-Globus. To do this, the tour operator can get two wide -body Airbus, which the carrier remain after the transfer of three A330 to “wet leasing” “Aeroflot”. But, according to the interlocutors in the market, the readiness of the Sukhum airport to accept the declared number of flights remains in question due to the shortage of employees.
IFLY can attract a partner of Aeroflot-the tour operator Bibli-Globus-to flights to Sukhum from Moscow this summer, three sources of Kommersant reported. According to two Kommersant’s interlocutors in the aircraft industry, the airline plans to put two of its broad -fitting long -range Airbus A330-200. The carrier previously transferred three A330-300 to “wet leasing” “Aeroflot”, they will not be able to fly to Abkhazia under the codes of Aeroflot.
According to Kommersant’s interlocutor in the tourist market, Aeroflot will be able to independently sell tickets through its resources, but the Bibli-Globus will receive the main share of the seats as part of the current agreement with the airline.
The Kommersant source indicates that Aeroflot can not fly to Sukhum because in 2006 the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), at the request of Georgia, canceled the airport code.
In the “Bibli-Globus” they did not answer the questions “Kommersant”, in Aeroflot they did not comment on the situation. IFLY “Kommersant” confirmed that they are considering the possibility of launching flights to Abkhazia this summer, clarifying that the final decisions will be made upon completion of the inspection for the technical and personnel readiness of the airport to accept flights. From the details there were abstained.
On April 11, the Federal Air Transport Agency issued tolerances for regular flights to Sukhum iFly – up to 14 flights a week from Moscow – and Nordstar – up to seven flights from Krasnoyarsk. Also, the Kazan JVT Aero has tolerance for flights, which has completed a test flight to Sukhum on CRJ-200 in February. In Nordstar and Jewt Aero, they did not give comments.
In April, the First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, Sergei Kiriyenko, said that flights will be launched at Sukhuma Airport from May 1.
But, according to Kommersant’s interlocutors in the industry, until the carriers received evidence of how many aircraft the airport will be able to accept after 30 years of downtime.
The Sukhumsky airport was closed in 1993 by the ICAO decision due to the war of the republic with Georgia. In the summer of 2023, Russia and Abkhazia agreed on reconstruction, in the fall of the same year the competition for the restoration of the airport was won by the Russian company Infrastructure Development. The beneficiary of the company Rashid Rashidovich Nurgaliev-the full namesake of one of the sons of the ex-head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Rashid Nurgaliev. The Abkhazian authorities announced that after reconstruction, the capacity of the complex will be 1.3 thousand passengers per hour. According to the project, the investor reconstructed the steering wheel and the runway of 3.1 km long, and also updated the terminal.
According to Kommersant sources in the industry, the state of the airfield and terminal today does not cause complaints from the Russian side. But it is still unknown whether the airport will have time to cope with the personnel hunger by the beginning of the summer season. According to Kommersant’s interlocutors, the airport is now in an active search for employees from Russia. So, on the portal of Hh.ru, the company « Infrastructure Development » published 38 vacancies, including engineers of the airfield service. The company places vacancies for specialists from Sochi, Krasnodar and other southern cities of the Russian Federation.
In Abkhazia, a deficit of airport specialists and office employees, says one of Kommersant’s interlocutors in a tourist market: “We hope that in a month the airport will be able to close vacancies and the flight program will begin.”
Another source in the aircraft industry noted that carriers will also have visits to the airport to study the technical equipment of ground equipment – “from ramps to power sources, you need to make sure that all this is in sufficient volume”. “Infrastructure development” “Kommersant” failed to contact.
Abkhazia is one of the most in demand by Russian tourists. Over the past year, the number of trips from the Russian Federation to the country has grown by 2.5%, to 5.81 million units, follows from the FSB border guards. For this summer, the tourist business notes a 20 percent growth of demand for a year for the year. This is dictated, including an increase in the transport accessibility of the region (See “Kommersant” from April 8).
The vice-president of the Russian Union of Trade of Trade Dmitry Gorin suggests that the opening of the Sukhum airport will reduce the loading of Sochi airport. Although through it, according to the expert, it will be more convenient for travelers to get to the resorts of Pitsunda and GAGR.
The capacity of two A300-200, as indicated on the IFLY website, 345 and 370 seats. To ensure the loading of the aircraft in the high season, especially on condition of sales of blocks of seats through the tour operator to the so -called bags, the carrier will not be difficult, says Ilya Shatilin, editor -in -chief of the Frequentflyers.ru portal. It recalls that the IFLY is an initial charter carrier and has a rich experience in tourist transportation. Since 2022, the entire carrier fleet remains in double registration, and now the planes remaining in ifly fly mainly between Moscow and Sochi. To diversify the geography of flights in this situation is a very rational decision, the expert says. The distant directions of the airline are now unavailable, and potentially popular flights to the DPRK remain the only foreign alternative, Mr. Shatilin believes: “The airline can actually occupy a niche of disputed directions, where he will definitely receive his passenger traffic.” At the same time, the expert notes that the success of flights to Sukhum will also depend on the ability to withstand the price competition of the carrier with flights in Sochi. In addition, part of the traffic can delay the train “Swallow” from Adler, which Russian Railways must launch in May.
