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Russia Airlines May Join German Alliance
Russia Airlines has begun negotiations to join the worldwide Star Alliance, headed by Lufthansa. Gennady Boldyrev, deputy general director of Russia State Transportation Co. Federal State Unitary Enterprise, as the airline is known officially, characterized the negotiations as “preliminary,” but told Interfax news agency that a final decision may be reached next year. He added that SAS suggested Russia Airlines for membership in the alliance.
Russia Airlines general director Sergey Mikhalchenko told Kommersant that that the company is considering proposals from all three worldwide air alliances (besides Star Alliance, they are Sky Team, headed by Air France, and OneWorld, headed by British Airways). Wolfgang Schmidt, Lufthansa regional director for Russia and the CIS, told Kommersant that he was unaware of Russia Airline's plans. “No decisions on new Star Alliance members have been made,” he added.
Aeroflot is the only current member of a worldwide alliance among Russian airlines. It has been one of the ten members of Sky Team for several years. It had to be audited for conformity to world standards and to allow access to the network of partners to almost 700 destinations in 133 countries for membership. It received about $20 million in addition income in the course of five years thanks to that membership.
Within the industry, the admission to an alliance of the air company whose fleet includes the plane used by Russian President Vladimir Putin is considered a logic decision. However, Siberian Airlines, Krasnoyarsk Airlines and UTair, which are among the top five Russian carriers by number of passengers and which have better developed routes within Russia, are mentioned as more appealing partners for the worldwide alliances. The Russian air alliance AiRUnion, headed by Krasnoyarsk Airlines, is still considered the most likely candidate for admission to Star Alliance, but the decision on its admission to the worldwide alliance is on hold until the Russian president signs the order on the legal unification of the members of the Russian alliance.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 13, 2006
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