AiRUnion, jointly run by the state and the Abramovich brothers (no relation to Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich), has been hit by a cash crisis leading to flight delays across Russia since August 21. A government pledge to provide the company with fuel has failed to solve the company's financial problems, which include fuel bills, back tax claims and a bankruptcy suit.
The Russian Technology Corporation, the Moscow government and the administration of Eastern Siberia's Krasnoyarsk Territory agreed Thursday to incorporate several airlines into one on the basis of the AiRUnion alliance.
"All the procedures needed to create the new airline will be completed no sooner than in nine months," the corporation's Deputy General Director Alexei Alyoshin told a news conference. "Until then all the air companies which will later be part of the new carrier will operate as independent legal entities."
The Russian Technology Corporation will hold the controlling stake in the new airline, which will unite Atlant-Soyuz, Rossiya Russian Airlines, Kavminvodyavia, Vladivostok Avia and Orenburg and Saratov airlines.
The AiRUnion crisis has affected passengers across Russia, and a deputy transportation minister said Friday that the backlog of flights would be cleared up within three or four days.
"Delays now constitute less than 20% of [the route] network. In the coming three to four days, the situation will be back to normal and delays will be no more than the average," Alexander Misharin, who is also board chairman of AiRUnion alliance member KrasAir, told journalists.
Alyoshin said AiRUnion had debts totaling some $800 million. "We have not yet carried out an audit [of the alliance], but according to preliminary information the debts total around $800 million," he said.
He added that his corporation has already offered $100 million worth of financial guarantees to the airlines incorporated in AiRUnion.
The official said the alliance is in desperate straits not only due to high fuel prices but because of its ageing fleet. Therefore, he said, the decision was made to establish a new airline which would receive the alliance's assets.
