30/7 Tass 48
MOSCOW, July 30 (Itar-Tass) — The Russian Ministry of Transport has instructed the Federal Air Transport Agency to seize all airplanes owned by the Continent airlines, which has announced its bankruptcy, the ministry’s press service reported on Saturday.
The move was taken not to let the airlines sell its fleet of nine Tu-154M aircraft.
According to the press service, materials on Continent’ s failure to meet its liabilities to passengers will by handed over to the prosecutor’s office.
On Friday, the airline announced its bankruptcy and cancelled all flights, after which its operator certificate was cancelled. “The move came after refuelling of the company’s aircraft was stopped at Russian airports because of the lack of money,” a source in the Federal Air Transport Agency said. According to the source, the company’ s debt as of July 29 was 32 million roubles.
On Friday, hundreds of Continent passengers got stranded at airports of Anapa, Sochi, Gelendzhik, and Krasnodar.
The Transport Clearing Chamber said money for unused tickets to Continent flights will be returned in full. At the same time, the source in the Federal Air Transport Agency said that the federal budget will grant subsidies to those airlines that would undertake to offer transportation services to Continent passengers.