beyondbrics

Aeroflot, the Russian airline, is no stranger to bad PR. The carrier that earned the name “Scareoflot” in the Soviet era is still going strong in the scandal department.

Just last year the airline came under fire after it nearly allowed one of its pilots to fly from Moscow to New York after heavy drinking. Passengers staged a protest despite one flight attendant’s insistence that all the pilot had to was “press a button and the plane flies itself,” as one passenger reported.

While Aeroflot is also not known for its flights’ punctuality, it would like the world to know that the hours of delays this week are not its fault– it’s all down to the Moscow government.

According to Andrei Kalmykov, Aeroflot’s chief executive, the carrier has been losing €400,000 a day this week because of city construction work on Leningraskoye highway, the one road leading to the airport.

“On the first day the collapse for us was killer. We had 1,300 people miss their plane. We reimbursed 75 per cent of the cost of their ticket in accordance with the law,” leading to a loss of  €700,000 in one day, he told reporters on Thursday.

While Moscow is no stranger to traffic – or construction – Mikhail Vasilenko, head of Sheremetyevo airport, claimed it seemed more than a coincidence that the roadworks began right when the Moscow city government is getting ready to open a new terminal at its rival Vnukovo airport.

“As it is known in competition there are two ways to achieve success: to set new standards for quality and price; or to create problems for your competitors and to use all resources available, including political power,” he wrote on his blog.

Furthermore, according to Kalymkov, no one warned Aeroflot or Sheremetyevo that the city would be doing roadworks, adding that the government had gone ahead and blocked off a chunk of the road even though no construction had actually started.

While the strong-handed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin urged “his colleagues” in the Moscow government and the management at Aeroflot and Sheremetyevo to work together to improve the situation, the two sides by the end of the day seemed to be making little progress and Aeroflot’s shares closed down 4.5 per cent at 54.3 roubles in Moscow.

Though the carrier looks unlikely to benefit from all the hoopla, there may be some unlikely beneficiaries.

Aeroexpress, the still-young express train to Sheremetyevo, reported today it had seen a healthy 65 -75 per cent rise in passengers this week and plans to add 20 additional train cars this month to meet the demand.

At least somebody is having a good PR day.