FAS concerned about Transaero situation
MOSCOW. Oct 30 (Interfax) - The fact that Aeroflot Russian Airlines will receive 56 international routes previously assigned to Transaero and the rest of situation surrounding Transaero is cause for concern, Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) chief Igor Artemyev said.
"This is a kind of like a multi-layered cake that the more it rises, I'm afraid, the more likely it is to burst and splatter on all of us. This is a very sad story. The company accumulated debt for two years and somehow the regulators didn't see that and then all of a sudden there all these ideas and solutions: Brownian motion where not even the government can get a handle on what is happening," Artemyev told journalists on Friday.
The FAS opposed the decision to redistribute Transaero's routes and will treat it as "a dubious decision made in haste."
"When we get to the bottom of the situation, we will immediately formulate our position," he said.
"Why do we want to get to the bottom of it? On the one hand we understand that Aeroflot has borne very great expense and it must be compensated and certain routes should have gone to it regardless of anything. But we already understood by that time how much each route was worth and what the consequences would be," he said.
Rosaviatsia officials would say "we have to be flying from some date," he said.
"Why did they only give routes to Aeroflot? After that, why did they revoke Transaero's operating certificate the day before? Why did you do this? Couldn't you have waited a week?" Artemyev said.
