SIBAVIATRANS: SA Vzlelnaya Street, Krasnoyarsk, 660077, Russia; Phone 7 (3912) 227 729; Fax 7 (3912) 553 824; Http://www. siat. ru/siat/n1.html; Code 5M; Year Founded 1995. Sibaviatrans is established on February 23, 1995, as the transport section of a Krasnoyarsk metal factory. In addition to executive travel, the unit is authorized to undertake passenger and cargo charters and to undertake aerial work.
Boris Abramovich is named director general and he recruits a workforce of 200. A fleet is acquired that comprises 2 Antonov An-2s, 1 British Aerospace BAe 125-700B bizjet, 2 Yakovlev Yak-40s, and 9 Mil Mi-8 helicopters. Revenue services begin before the end of the month and are continued over the next four years without headline or incident. During these years, 1 each Tupolev Tu-154B and Tu-154M and 2 Antonov An-32s are added, along with 22 smaller fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. Revenues of 300 million rubles are reported for 1999.
The Russian media reports that during the summer of 2000, negotiations are conducted between the carrier and Murmansk Airlines concerning the possible provision of help in resolving the latter’s dismal operating situation. The talks come to nothing because Sibaviatrans is not interested in purchasing additional expensive Tupolevs, wanting only to lease the Antonov biplanes and a number of helicopters. The Murmansk
Web site soon shows most of the helicopter fleet up for sale, as well as both Tupolevs (one for $2.1 million and the other for $2.2 million).
Sibaviatrans now opens an office at Murmansk and begins to operate its own return service from that point to Moscow. Executives on the scene now also avail themselves of opportunities to further assess Murmansk Airlines’ small fleet.
The increasing cost of fuel forces the company to default on its avgas payments on September 4. A payment schedule is soon instituted.
In mid-November, Sibaviatrans and Murmansk Airlines conclude a strategic partnership. Under its terms, Sibaviatrans leases three An-2s, all of the Mi-8s (only one of which is serviceable), and two Mi-2s, agreeing to overhaul the grounded helicopters. These are employed by Sibaviatrans to operate the Murmansk Airlines routes.
SIBERIA AIRLINES (SIBIR): 4 Fruenze Street, Novosibirsk, 630091, Russia; Phone 7 (3832) 221931; Fax 7 (3832) 226830; Http://www. sibir. ru; Code S7; Year Founded 1992. When Aeroflot Soviet Airlines is reformed in 1992, its Novosibirsk directorate, Sibavia, is initially reformed into the Toimachevo State Aviation Enterprise, headquartered at the nearby city of Ob. In May, the concern, physically removed to Tolmachevo Airport, is reborn as Sibavia Sibirskir Avialinii Kompanii, an affiliate of Aeroflot Russian International Airlines (ARIA). The name will be shortened to more familiar Sibir or Siberia Airlines. Shareholding is divided between Sibir employees (51%), the state (25%), and private investors (24%).
V. N. Tasum is general director and in additional to previous regional passenger and cargo flights, now including other CIS republics, he begins to offer charter flights to Europe and Asia. A large fleet is employed that includes 6 Ilyushin Il-86s, 10 Il-76s, 25 Tupolev Tu-154s, 10 Tu-134s, 30 Antonov An-24s, 10 An-26s, 7 An-26Cs, and an unspecified number of Yakovlev Yak-40s.
Enplanements total 4,205,186.
The downturn in the Russian economy during 1993 severely impacts the airline’s traffic.
Passenger boardings plunge 41.3% to 2,976,070 while freight is down 39% to 628.5 million FTKs.
Gennady V. Kulichev is president in 1994 and he recruits a workforce of 1,040. The fleet is expanded by the addition of one Il-86, one Tu-154M and seven Tu-154Bs, while the Tu-134s and An-24s are withdrawn. Scheduled service to Moscow is started from Tomsk, Kemerovo, and Barnaul.
Customer bookings fall again, dropping 26.4% to 2, 1,563,574 and cargo is off 12.9% to 548,000 FTKs.
The company’s 29 aircraft haul a total of 1,510,700 passengers in 1995, a 3.5% decline. Cargo traffic, on the other hand, inches up 1.1% to 47.2 million FTKs. Much of the freight growth occurs as a result of company flights to Sharjah, UAE, from whence aircraft return filled with all manner of cheap (by Russian standards) clothing and electronic gear.
Airline employment stands at 2,040 in 1996. Incomplete traffic figures reported to ICAO show another bad year. The Sharjah flights continue, often with brightly painted Tu-154Ms.
Customer bookings plunge to 571,625 while only 34.51 million FTKs are operated. There is a $600,000 net loss.
In 1997, one of Russia’s 7 largest carriers, the workforce of Sibavia, is cut 4.7% to 1.950. Scheduled and charter services to 19 destinations continue to be offered with a mixed fleet of 30 aircraft. Holiday flights are initiated to Bulgaria, Turkey, and Israel. An office is opened at Barnaul in October.
In December, BoguchanGEStroi Deputy Director General Vladislav Filev is elected to the board of directors.
Enplanements for the year reach back up 6.6% to 609,226, while 206 million FTKs are also operated. Operating revenues advance 1.1% to $91.6 million, but costs are still high and there is a $2.03-million net loss.
The fleet at the start of 1998 includes 5 An-24s, 4 An-26s, 18 Tu-154Ms, and 7 Il-86s. Four other Tu-154Ms are leased out to Iran.
Faced with increased competition, Sibavia moves to modernize. During the second week of April, former board member Vladislav Filev is named director general, with his wife, Nayalya, as deputy director general-commercial and Sergei Borisov as deputy director general-flight operations. At the same time, Atlas Project Management, an aerospace consulting firm, is hired to assist the airline in revitalizing its business methods. Filev and Atlas begin to reorganize the company, department by department, and reduce the number of aircraft in the fleet.
In May, an office is opened in Kemerovo. At this point, the company is able to claim victory in its competition with Deutsche Lufthansa, A. G., which retires from the Frankfurt to Novosibirsk route. Siberian immediately doubles its frequencies between the two cities.
A code-sharing agreement is signed with Lufthansa Cargo Airlines, A. G. on the Novosibirsk to Frankfurt route; under its terms, Sibavia will fly all freight for both carriers between the two cities. During July, the company’s financial and commercial departments are merged. Flights to Tianziang commence in August.
Also in August, as economic problems persist, the Russian government devalues the ruble. The official exchange rate is initially pegged at six rubles to the dollar, but soon plunges. By mid-September, currency trades at 16 to 1.
This carrier, like many others across the nation, is forced to sharply increase some economy-class fares on its busy domestic routes. Even so, the new fares are still cheaper, in terms of dollars, than they were before the crisis. Sibavia, for example, increases its one-way fare to Moscow from 600 rubles to 800.
Still, airline continues to grow, opening a new nonscheduled route from Novosibirsk to Beijing in early October. Sibavia operates approximately 20 monthly Il-86 charters to the Chinese capital, taking 50-60 passengers to major shopping areas. They return with 35-36 tons of “hand baggage” on each trip, containing goods that will be sold at a profit. As the Russian economic situation continues to decline during the fall, the number of suitcase flights likewise tapers off.
Scheduled flights, on the other hand, are inaugurated between Novosibirsk and Beijing on December 23. Also during the month, a new office is opened at Tomsk.
Enplanements during the 12 months climbs 2.3% to 623,000 and the company transports 5,850 tons of freight. The carrier transports 52% of all passengers and 65% of the cargo collectively moved by all of the airlines in West Siberia. Siberian enjoys a 65.7% load factor, which is over 10% higher than the average for Russian airlines. Although exact figures are not provided, it is reported that revenues are up 10% over the previous year.
Reporter Vovick Karnozov reveals in “Siberian Merger,” an article in the March 22, 1999 on-line edition of AeroWorldNet, that the carrier’s fleet, on New Year’s Day comprises 7 owned and 1 leased Il-86s, 6 leased and 4 owned Tu-154Bs, and 7 Tu-154Ms, 2 of which are leased to Iran. It also operates 1 Tu-134A, an An-32, and 3 An-26 freighters. Orders are outstanding for 1 Il-86 and 3 Yakovlev Yak-42Ds.
The new Novosibirsk to Beijing service, for whatever reason, is not announced in China until January 28.
By the end of March, two Tu-154Ms have been modernized and given business-class seating. All of the others plus the Il-86s will soon be reconfigured in the same manner.
Scheduled destinations now visited include Adler/Sochi, Baku, Beijing, Bishkek, Dubai, Dushanbe, Frankfurt, Hanover, Istanbul, Kemerovo, Khabarovsk, Krasnodar, Mineralyne Vody, Moscow, Petropavalovsk-Kamchats, Raduzhnyi, Samara, St. Petersburg, Tashkent, Tel Aviv, Tanjin, Tomsk, Urumqi, Vladivostok, Yakutsk, and Yerevan.
Plans proceed for a merger of Sibavia with fiscally troubled Vnukovo Airlines.
On July 1, Managing Director Filev is named director general of Vnukovo and begins an attempt to run both carriers prior to their merger. After six weeks with Vnukovo, the man who has done so much for Sibavia realizes that Vnukovo’s financial and fleet problems are too significant to allow for an early amalgamation. After putting in place a number of small reforms and instituting joint services over several common routes, Filev resigns from Vnukovo in early August. Returning to Sibavia, he indicates that, if Vnukovo is able to overcome its problems on its own, a merger may be possible in the second quarter or later of 2000.
Beginning in October, the carrier issues smart cards to their Sibir Plus corporate program members.
It is reported on November 16 that the airline has joined with Perm State Air Enterprise (Permskoe Gosudartsvennoe A/P) in a concentrated effort to acquire part of the 25% market share held by Vnukovo Airlines in the Ural and Siberian markets.
Late in December, the company accepts delivery of a Tupolev Tu-204-100 under lease from Perm State Air Enterprise (Permskoe Gosudartsvennoe A/P); it enters service on the company’s route from Moscow to Novosibirsk.
Passenger boardings jump 19.6% to 744,700, while 28.8 million FTKs are also operated. Revenues rise 1.9% to $106 million and there is a $2-million net profit. (A year later, it will be noted that the carrier has actually suffered a 32.8-million ruble—$1.3 million-loss.) An on-time percentage of 90% is reported.
Airline employment at the beginning of 2000 stands at 2,385, a 19.3% increase over the previous 12 months. Ownership is divided between the Russian Ministry of State Property (25.5%), Novosibirsk Regional Administration (23.44%), Moscow-based Eurofinance Investment Company (5%), Limited Partnership Portfolio Investments (12.71%), SEPTA (18.8%), and OJSC Rusinprom-invest (19.5%). The fleet now includes 7 Il-86s, 12 Tu-154Bs, 8 Tu-154Ms, 1 Tu-134A, and the chartered Tu-204-100.
At the beginning of the year, Sibir inherits the routes to Kemerovo and Novokuznetsk that had been abandoned in mid-September by bankrupt Aero Kuznetsk Novokuznetsk Airline. The insolvent airline is, incidentally, renamed Aerokuzbass, and with a fleet of five Tu-154s, attempts to climb out of bankruptcy and stage a comeback.
On March 7, Flight International reports that Sibir is planning to establish a new hub at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport, home of its once and future partner Vnukovo Airlines. It also hopes to boost its operations from Perm in the Urals.
Il-86 and Tu-154M passenger and cargo charters to Seoul are resumed on March 20. Sibir’s Chinese Il-86 flights are oriented away from the cargo-accompanied shuttle route to Tianjin toward the higher business mix that is available at Beijing. Passenger traffic during the first quarter climbs 5% on the Moscow-to-Novosibirsk route due to the departure from it of Transaero Airlines and the temporary grounding of Vnukovo Airlines.
On March 23, Flight Directors, Ltd., based at London (LGW) is appointed the carrier’s U. K. sales agent. Additional representative offices are also opened at Frankfurt, Moscow, Sochi, and Novokuznetsk. The company begins to employ many of its own agents for a newly unveiled sales program.
At the end of the month, new services are started to Anapa and Barnaul. Eight-times-a-week Tu-154M roundtrips are introduced from Omsk and Novosibirsk to Hanover, Munich, and Frankfurt. Improved schedules are introduced for the major long-haul regional routes, Moscow-Novosibirsk with Novosibirsk-Yakutsk and Vladivostok-Irkutsk with the Irkutsk-Moscow route. Il-86 charters are flown from Novosibirsk to Larnaca, Antalya, Burgas, and Varna and from Moscow to Larnaca, Antalya, and Palma de Mallorca.
In April, arrangements are completed with Avialeasing for the purchase of the Tupolev Tu-204-100 it has chartered from Perm State Air Enterprise (Permskoe Gosudartsvennoe A/P). Funding will follow shortly. Sibir also adds a Tu-154B, retiring two aircraft of the same type.
In June, a comprehensive agreement is signed with Sayany Airlines. Officially, the larger company becomes general sales agent for Sayany and is empowered to provide aircraft, manage, and develop its operations. In fact, the alliance will soon become a merger in everything but name.
On July 3, daily Tu-154M roundtrips are inaugurated from Omsk to Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport. Seven days later, a license is received that will permit the initiation of new services to Omsk. The company launches weekly Tu-154M return service from Omsk to Frankfurt via Moscow on July 13. The next day, an interline agreement is signed with Deutsch Lufthansa, A. G. that permits the two carriers to sell seats on each other’s flights. For the first time, Sibir seats are sold outside of Russia, indeed, anywhere in the world.
A $15.8-million, 4 1/2-year loan is obtained from the Siberbank on July 19. The new funds allow purchase of the Tu-204-100 it has been leasing and guarantees the airline the money required to purchase upwards of five more Tu-204-100s from Aviastar in the next year, along with several other aircraft needed for its planned fleet upgrade. To meet an April 1 deadline by the EC for TCAS equipment aboard all airliners flown over Western Europe, five Tu-154Ms and two Il-86s begin reequipping with AlliedSignal Version 2 suites.
Svyatoslav Lychagin, head of a department in the State Property Ministry, informs The Moscow Times on August 30 that the government is sending a budget to the Duma this week that includes a list of 20 state-owned companies to be sold next year. Aeroflot Russian International Airlines (ARIA), Sibir, and Samara Airlines are originally on this privatization document. However, the exact sizes of the stakes to be sold have disappeared from the list after it has gone through final review by the offices of President Putin.
On September 4, Sibir begins to fully submerge the operations of its affiliate, Sayany Airlines, using Sibir aircraft on its licensed routes and collecting all revenues. All tickets on Sayany flights are sold under the Sibir name.
With airfare debts by its deputies continuing to grow, the airline, on September 25, takes action against the state for nonpayment. In October, the carrier’s information technology division launches “Bilet Plus,” an Internet ticket sales agency. The new service will permit its customers to book flights not only with Sibir, but also with other CIS airlines and Deutsche Lufthansa, A. G.
With permission from the UN sanctions committee, on October 31 the carrier flies a Tu-154M from Barnaul to Baghdad, flying over Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Iran. This route must be employed because Turkey has refused overflight authority. The onetime charter, which Sibir has no plans to repeat, had been organized by the Altai Region as a charity for children suffering from leukemia. In addition to 1,180 kg. of humanitarian aid, the plane also transports 49 passengers. The Tu-154M returns to Barnaul over the same route on November 3.
In November, special pricing is introduced for transit passengers, e. g., for those traveling on the route from Blagoveshensk to Moscow via Blagoveshensk. Arrangements are completed by month’s end for the complete absorption of Sayany Airlines into Sibir before the end of the year.
New twice-weekly Tu-154M roundtrips commence on December 6 from Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport to Irkutsk, historically a transit point on the carrier’s route from Novosibirsk to Vladivostok. Later in the month, the carrier introduces its first purchased Tupolev Tu-204-100.
At the end of the year, it is learned that the Russian Ministry of State Property, which owns 25.5% of Sibir, intends to put a percentage of its stake in the airline up for sale in the new year as part of a package of 30 state holdings that are to be privatized. It will first be necessary for the Duma to amend the current law prohibiting the sale of state holdings exceeding $17 million in valuation.
On December 23, an agreement is reached under which Sibir will take over Vnukovo Airlines, the country’s third largest airline in terms of passenger boardings, in the biggest landmark in Russian civil aviation history since the breakup of Aeroflot Soviet Airlines. The State Service of Civil Aviation (GSGA) must approve the deal and there is no precedent in Russian law for the takeover of one major independent airline by another.
If the arrangement is approved, Vnukovo will lose its identity. Undecided is whether or not Vnukovo will operate as a subsidiary with a different name or be folded into its new parent.
Sibir CEO Vladislav Filiov agrees to assume responsibility for Vnukovo’s debts and pay the workers of both carriers for the 2.5 months required for integration. The deal will provide Sibir with a strategic Moscow hub at Vnukovo Airport, 7 more Tu-204-100s (among other types), and boost its route network to almost 200 cities. As anticipated, there is opposition from East Line Airlines and Aeroflot Russian International Airlines (ARIA), as well as from within the GSGA itself.
Arrangements are immediately completed for the $16.9-million purchase and delivery to Sibir of the first ex-Vnukovo Tu-204-100 in February. Upon receipt, the aircraft will be ferried to the Tupolev Aviation Technical Complex at Zhukovsky for further modernization and alteration prior to their joining the fleet in the summer. In addition, $7.18 million will be expended to purchase one Il-86 and eight Tu-154Ms; Vnukovo will apply the proceeds to its large debt.
Customer bookings accelerate 11.8% during these 12 months to 832,728. In terms of passengers carried, Sibir is now the fourth largest airline in Russia. Cargo traffic jumps 22.5% to 296.6 million FTKs. Revenues jump 16% to $120 million. On-time percentage dips to 84.6%, while overall flying hours increase by 14.2%, although the cancellation of loss-making CIS routes is reflected in a 24% decline in the number of hours flown by the fleet’s Tu-134As. The fleet now includes 11 Tu-154Bs, 9 Tu-154Ms, 7 Il-86s, and 1 Tu-204-100.
The merger with Vnukovo will be officially reported on January 3, 2001. Twelve days later, Sibir will take over the Vnukovo routes to Yerevan, Sochi Novy Urengoi, Nadym, Makhachkala, Mineral Waters and Ulan-Ude. The GSGA, having heard all opponents, will quickly approve this creation of the nation’s second-largest airline with Sibir, as promised, assuming responsibility for Vnukovo’s 500-million ruble ($20-million) debt. With the January 23 announcement, Sibir will begin paying Vnukovo’s debts, allowing creditors holding the carrier’s nine aircraft to begin releasing them. Following approval by Sibir stockholders on April 27, Vnukovo, once Russia’s fourth largest airline and the first to disappear in the new year, will operate with its new owner as one entity under the Sibir name. Amalgamation time for the actual legal merger may require another year.
In February 2001, the GSGA reports that the total number of Russian air carriers has fallen from 328 in January 2000 to a current 294. It also reveals that Kras Air (Krasnoyarsk Avialinii-Krasair), Siberia Airlines (Sibir), Pulkovo Airlines (Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise), and Aeroflot Russian International Airlines (ARIA) have, between them, carried half of all Russian passenger traffic in 2000.
Those numbers can be expected to grow under the new Aeroplan Alyans (Alliance) that will be signed by Sibir and Kras Air (Krasnoyarsk Avialinii-Krasair) at the beginning of March.
World History
