UPDATE: Putin punishes transport minister for VIM-Avia failure

(Provides new headline, lede, adds details in second paragraph)

MOSCOW, Sep 29 (PRIME) -- President Vladimir Putin has imposed disciplinary penalty on Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov punishing him for massive flight delays by airline VIM-Avia, which left thousands of Russians stranded abroad, according to the decree published on the official Web site for disclosure of legal information on Friday.

“By agreeing with the suggestion offered by the Russian Federation government chairman to announce disciplinary penalty to the transport minister of the Russian Federation I rule to announce the disciplinary penalty in the form of service incompetence note to the Russian Federation Transport Minister Sokolov M.Yu.,” the decree said.

A VIM-Avia representative told PRIME that the carrier agreed with leasing companies to leave all planes under operative control of the airline.

Over the past three days, managers of the air carrier met with owners of aircraft that are in the company under operating leasing. “It mainly includes foreign companies, like Citibank, Veling, MCAP. Negotiations were constructive. Leasing companies have demonstrated understanding in the situation of our company and expressed readiness to support it these hard times,” the representative said.

Leasing companies approved an anti-crisis plan of the airline and said it is realistic. “All aircraft remain under operative control of VIM-Avia despite some delays in leasing payments,” the representative said, adding that a moratorium on control of aircraft could have led to further worsening of financial condition of the company and could have made the process irreversible.

The airline has been delaying a large number of flights since mid-summer, and on Monday it admitted it had no money to continue its activities and it would have to stop charter flights. According to the statement by the government, VIM-Avia owes the suppliers about 1.3 billion rubles.

On Thursday, the government allocated 98 million rubles to the airline to help it pay for fuel and bring home the passengers.

(58.4255 rubles – U.S. $1)

End