Deputy: VIM-Avia’s flights to go as scheduled from October 3–4

MOSCOW, Sep 27 (PRIME) -- The ruling party United Russia controls the situation with troubled airline VIM-Avia, and all planes of the company will fly according to the schedule starting from October 3 or October 4, Yevgeny Moskvichev, head of the transport committee of the parliament’s lower house State Duma, told reporters on Wednesday.

The airline has been delaying a massive amount of its flights since mid-summer, and on Monday it admitted it had no money to continue flights and it would have to stop charter flights. The Investigative Committee launched a criminal case against the airline charging its managers with stealing money of passengers. The Prosecutor General’s Office launched an inspection of the airline previously.

“The United Russia party is keeping the issue under control. We’ve created a working group led by Minister Transport Maxim Sokolov, and the group unites all companies that are able to help. I would like to say that this issue will be completely solved next week, on Tuesday or Wednesday, and flights will become regular again,” Moskvichev said.

The party suggested creation of a reserve fund on the basis of the Transport Ministry to avoid cases of massive flight delays in the future. “We think that we have to create a reserve fund at the Transport Ministry to avoid these situations in the future and to provide conditions for passengers abroad, and catering to passengers who are waiting for more than four hours in airports,” he said.

The party will also consider why banks continue financing companies that demonstrate financial stability but actually have huge debts.

“We would like to discuss the problem with the Federal Air Transport Agency. We want to look at it and say that we are ready to increase their powers through regulatory acts if it is necessary for them to be able to test stability of airlines in, let’s say, the month of May, when the season starts,” he said.

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