MOSCOW, August 2 (Itar-Tass) —— Airlines of Russia have transported all passengers of the bankrupt Continent from Simferopol. The transportation of Continent passengers from Anapa and Krasnoyarsk continues, the Federal Air Transport Service told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
“All the 119 passengers have been transported from Simferopol to Moscow by jets of Aeroflot and Sibir,” the service said. Seventy-one passengers of Continent are stranded at the Anapa Airport. Sibir will take them home on August 3.
A total of 109 passengers of the bankrupt airline were transported from Krasnoyarsk to various cities of the Far East on Tuesday.
“Another 99 passengers remain in Krasnoyarsk, a jet of the Taimyr airline will carry 48 of them to Norilsk. The rest will take regular flights of Aeroflot, Transaero and VladivostokAvia to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatksy, Komsomolsk-on-Amur and Blagoveshchensk,” the service said.
The Altai territorial authorities have formed a staff for interaction with passengers of the bankrupt Continent Airline.
The airline was making flights from Barnaul to Anapa and Norilsk. There are no Continent passengers from other regions left in the Barnaul Airport, head of the territorial transport and communications department Viktor Davydov said.
“Our staff has been monitoring Continent passengers since July 30. All the problems are settled,” he said.
The Nord Star Airline will bring children from Abakan to Norilsk in fulfillment of the Continent commitment. The charter fight is planned for August 5. The plane will take aboard 162 children and eight tutors. Another ten children and two tutors will be transported by bus to the Krasnoyarsk Yemelyanovo Airport on August 4. They will take a flight to Norilsk.
In all, more than 770 children from circumpolar Norilsk are taking vacation in southern Russia. Continent was the official transporter of children from Norilsk under a municipal contract.
Meanwhile, Basel Aero, the operator of airports in southern Russia, has drafted a plan for transportation of passengers of the bankrupt Continent Airline.
Five Continent flights from airports of the Krasnodar territory were scheduled for August 2 with the total number of passengers 295, including two with 102 passengers from Sochi, two with 163 passengers from Anapa and one with 30 passengers from Krasnodar, the operator told Itar-Tass.
The transportation proposals were submitted to the Federal Air Transport Service for final approval by airlines. It was proposed to transport 218 passengers on a chartered jet from Krasnodar to Irkutsk via Tomsk and Barnaul, and to put passengers routed for St. Petersburg, Moscow, Ufa and Norilsk on regular flights of Rossiya, Aeroflot, ALK, Sky Express and Sibir.
If that is done, all the passengers with the departure date due on August 2 will be given transportation, the operator said.
Basel Aero General Director Sergei Likharyov called for forming an operative staff of the Federal Air Transport Service in order to resolve the situation at the southern airports. The staff should involve representatives of the Federal Tourism Agency and other interested departments.
“The staff must monitor the amount of Continent tickets sold for every day, find vacant seats on regular flights of all Russian airlines and divide them in the first turn between Continent passengers, as well as organize chartered flights to the northern areas, Siberia and the Far East,” Likharyov said.
Continent announced its bankruptcy last Friday and its license was revoked. “Russian airports stopped fueling Continent jets, as the airline was unable to pay for jet fuel,” the Federal Air Transport Service told Itar-Tass.
As of July 29, the airline’s debts to airports reached 32 million rubles. The airline has 35,000 tickets sold for the period until 11.
The Transport Clearing Chamber has ordered ticket offices to pay refunds. Passengers who bought tickets online would have to appeal to courts for returning their money.
The Prosecutor General’s Office said on Sunday that the situation had stabilized.
Sixty-nine flights with more than 3,000 passengers were cancelled from July 29 through 31 because of the Federal Air Transport Service’s revocation of the Continent license, the Office said.
Transport prosecutors are assisting the transportation of the Continent passengers and providing them with various services, such as hotel accommodation, catering, refreshments, mother and child rooms and so on.
The passengers are being transported by jetliners of other airlines or train. Some passengers have received refunds.
The situation is stable in the East Siberian, Volga and Urals regions; it is tense in the Southern region despite the transportation of some Continent passengers by other airlines.
Passengers are not the only victims of the Continent situation. A Continent crew has been staying in Norilsk for five days without contact with the employer. The pilots turned to the city administration for help.
Continent General Director Vladimir Krasilnikov, 62, was detained and questioned as a witness, the Moscow transport investigations department spokesperson told Itar-Tass.
She said that the fraud case had been opened.