Aeroflot working with Transport Ministry on legalizing overbooking, 'wet' leasing - CEO

VLADIVOSTOK. Sept 14 (Interfax) - Aeroflot is working with the Transport Ministry on legalizing overbooking, or the intentional sale of more tickets than there are seats on a plane, as well as 'wet' leasing of aircraft, whereby one airline can obtain an aircraft and crew from another carrier, the Russian airline's CEO, Sergei Aleksandrovsky said.

"We are working with the Transport Ministry on draft regulations on these issues. We see advantages in this, especially as regards overbooking for low-coster Pobeda," Aleksandrovsky told reporters at the Eastern Economic Forum.

"A law on overbooking will allow all airlines to come out of the grey zone. Everyone understands that, in one form or another, overbooking on flights happens, for example this happens when there is a forced replacement of aircraft, when a smaller capacity plane has to be used for technical reasons. However, the rights of passengers remain unprotected," Aleksandrovsky said.

"Therefore, we are in favour of everyone finally playing by the same rules and the rules being comprehensible to passengers. By no means are we talking about infringing their rights. On the contrary, by increasing profitability, airlines will be able to make flights more affordable," he said.

Overbooking is a simple tool for airlines, which see the historical seat occupancy of flights and the percentage of passengers who do not show up for a flight and sell tickets accordingly, Aleksandrovsky said. Airlines can use overbooking on high-frequency flights, he said.

Aeroflot is also "working on the regulatory framework" for 'wet' leasing, he said. "After it is adopted, we will be able to transfer aircraft within the group or bring in additional carrying capacity from outside. If some airline does not need aircraft in the low season, then we will be able to take the capacity for our network and vice versa," Aleksandrovsky said.