The head of Aurora called consolidation an alternative to bankruptcies in aviation

DIRECTOR General of Avrora Airlines Konstantin Sukhorebrik considers bankruptcy in the market to be “normal”. “But a more normal phenomenon is consolidation. This is the path that we have been offering for a long time, it is good that it took place in the Far East, ”he said in an interview with RBC.

According to the top manager, "there is no other way", especially in the segments of regional, local air traffic. “Consolidating homogeneous and single-segment companies is more sustainable and viable,” he points out.

The unified Far Eastern airline, created in 2021 by decision of President Vladimir Putin on the basis of Aurora, includes five more carriers: Yakutia, Kamchatka Aviation Enterprise and ChukotAVIA (25% + 1 share of these companies have already been transferred to Aurora) ), as well as Polar Airlines and Khabarovsk Airlines. Sukhorebrik claims that the leaders of these companies hold strategic sessions, have created working groups on critical issues, and synchronize their technologies and plans.

In 2021, the net profit of Aurora amounted to 1.5 billion rubles, but the total net profit of the entire unified Far Eastern airline due to the losses of Yakutia was less - 1.3 billion rubles. 2022, despite the unprecedented Western sanctions , the company also intends to finish without losses. “The result will also be positive - due to the fact that our principle is simple: we do not allow ourselves or our companies to work at a loss. This is just the stability of the enterprise,” the head of the company notes. “If there is a minus, we will become the next candidate for bankruptcy, Russian aviation knows quite a lot of such examples,” he warns.

The biggest bankruptcy in the history of Russian aviation is Transaero, which ceased operations at the end of 2015, unable to cope with financial difficulties. At that time, it ranked second in the market in terms of the number of passengers after Aeroflot.