Russian antitrust concerned with Aeroflot getting Transaero routes

MOSCOW, Oct 30 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service is concerned with a transfer of 56 international routes of troubled airline Transaero to national flagship carrier Aeroflot, Director Igor Artemyev told reporters Friday.

“Our position on this is worry. The FAS said … that it is against that decision that day,” he said.

The antimonopoly service was against making such a decision the day after Vladislav Filyov, a shareholder of S7 Group, said he wanted to buy a controlling stake in Transaero, Artemyev said.

“Why do we think that the decision to transfer the routes to Aeroflot should not have been made? Because it was necessary to figure out what had happened. We see that they change a CEO then, act as real buyers, and at the same time violate the antimonopoly legislation by not submitting a relevant application. And debts are not decreasing, and banks are at the same time filing for bankruptcy. This is a complete hodgepodge,” he said.

Aeroflot earlier received 56 international routes of Transaero for one year with a possibility of further prolongation. Aeroflot expects to compensate its 17 billion ruble costs of bailing out Transaero by using these routes, CEO Vitaly Savelyev said earlier.

Transaero has failed to service 250 billion rubles of debt and plans to file for bankruptcy. Several creditors demand bankruptcy of the company as well. Its air operator certificate was recalled on Monday and the company has not asked for a new document.

(64.1686 rubles – U.S. $1)

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