Co-owner of Vnukovo - RBC: "People have moved to the railway and buses"

Vnukovo co-owner Vitaly Vantsev told in an interview with RBC how the airport is coping with unprecedented Western sanctions,how many passengers will be able to transport in 2022 and where does it make sense to invest in aviation now Vitaly Vantsev

The impact of Western sanctions and special operations on the aviation industry

Duty Free on domestic flights and other government support measures

How much Vantsev invests in aircraft maintenance

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How south-based Azimuth survived airport closures

How many passengers will Russian companies carry in 2022

“I don’t see where the increase in passenger traffic will come from”

- Unprecedented sanctions have been introduced against the Russian aviation industry, many foreign companies have left RUSSIA. How did this affect Vnukovo Airport?

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- Foreign airlines left us back in 2020 due to the CORONAVIRUS pandemic. The flight bans were by and large never lifted, and European companies didn't even start flying [to Vnukovo]. But [since then] a number of airlines have, of course, gone. These are the loss of passenger traffic and income.

The business of the Moscow air hub - not only Vnukovo, but also Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo - was built on the fact that the proportion of domestic and international airlines averaged 50/50. Depending on the year, it changed from one side to the other by 5%. In 2020, we lost about half of international flights, and since May 2021 there has been a trend towards their recovery. But in 2022, due to the latest events and the sanctions you mentioned, the last European airlines left. Now the drop in international passenger traffic compared to 2019 is about 80%.

The EU banned the sale of aircraft to Russia Politics

- How much have domestic flights decreased?

- In the summer season, up to 40% of domestic air lines at Moscow airports were southbound. Simferopol, Krasnodar, Anapa, Rostov, etc. In this situation, we understand that this flow will no longer exist (flights to the south of Russia are prohibited due to a special operation.). But life has not stopped, everyone goes to the Crimea and our other southern resorts very well, everything is filled everywhere, as usual. The method of delivery has changed - people just moved to the railway and buses.

With such a decrease in the “international” and southern directions, we are left with only 30% of what it was in 2019. How much we carry today, we will carry as much [in the coming months]. I just do not see where the increase in passenger traffic will come from. At the same time, in 2020–2021, we lived precisely at the expense of domestic passenger traffic.

- In connection with Western sanctions, do you plan to switch to Russian analogues of special airfield equipment, software and equipment?

— We started the process of switching to Russian information systems — check-in systems, baggage search and passenger distribution — back in 2016 and implemented them step by step. This was not at all connected with the sanctions, but with the economy. A long time ago, we had a large number of similar systems, they are much cheaper than what we were offered abroad. As a result, we replaced a large number of IT products with Russian counterparts. Therefore, the sanctions did not have a big impact on us.

But there are a number of products that we just haven't gotten to yet. I am sure that within two years we will completely replace foreign IT products with Russian ones. We have a very good own IT team with high qualifications - mathematicians and programmers. It is cheaper to maintain your highly qualified staff, which you always have at hand, than to pay a lot of money and at the same time have a remote service that is not always of high quality in terms of speed of decisions. We expect that by mid-2024 we will not depend on any foreign IT products at all. And it is very important that today we support all foreign systems on our own - the qualifications of our specialists are so high. We are not bound by contracts with foreign companies.

How much will it cost you to fix them?

— From 150 million to 300 million rubles. Everything will depend on the number of employees.

- What is the dependence of the airport on foreign equipment - travelators, airfield and special equipment? Many of their manufacturers have already announced their withdrawal from Russia.

- Everything is quite good with us with airfield equipment and special equipment. Servicing foreign equipment was not easy before. It was expensive in and of itself. As long as it works, it's very effective. But once she gets up, it can drag on for up to three months. As a rule, not all spare parts are available in regional warehouses, they need to be brought in.

When we reconstructed the international airport in 2006-2007, we bought several pieces of equipment - Swiss, German and American - and experimented to see which one would last the longest and which one could be repaired the fastest. As a result, we settled on the [German] Schmidt - today we have all the teams lined up on it to clean the runways, aprons and taxiways. But in parallel, we worked with our manufacturers, who, on the basis of KamAZ and MAZ, tried to make analogues of Schmidt. They've been doing really well lately. If necessary, we will simply replace foreign equipment with Russian. Yes, there are a couple of units of specific equipment, but there are Chinese manufacturers. We don't see a big tragedy here.

For heavy fire trucks on a special chassis (analogues of the Austrian Rosenbauer Panther or the American Oshkosh vehicles that we currently use at the airport), there is a successful prototype of a heavy fire truck from the Bryansk Automobile Plant, our search and rescue flight support service took part in testing, and we gave recommendations on bringing the car to the required standard. We are sure that in the near future in Russia there will be a high-quality analogue of a heavy starting fire truck. To replace fire trucks on a commercial chassis (we use Iveco or MAN), an alternative can be offered by the Vargashinsky plant of fire-fighting and special equipment, UralPozhTechnika based on MAZ, KamAZ, Ural.

Photo: Sergey Mamontov / RIA Novosti

As for the equipment of the airfield service, there are analogues for large brushes TJS 630 Schmidt, produced in Belarus at BelSTATS, and in Russia (Kominvest-AKMT). There are no alternatives yet for reagent distributors on the runway with artificial surface Schmidt Stratos, Giletta, but in the future we will be able to use KamAZ with a bunker for granules and a container for liquid reagents (combined vehicles) of domestic production. For Volvo front loaders, alternatives exist from manufacturers from CHINA , for example, LuiGong, they are produced in Russia by Boulder and Amkador. It is too early to talk about the amount of costs, since at present there are enough equipment at the airport.

Military operation in Ukraine. Online Politics

— That is, over the past three months since the start of the special operation in Ukraine and the imposition of Western sanctions, you have not felt any difficulties?

- Not. We don't have any problems at all. I do not see that they will arise on the horizon of several years. I am sure that in two or three years those companies with which we work will bring all the equipment to perfection. Even faster.

— The current situation is not the most difficult for air transport during your career in the industry?

— I remember many crises. Each situation is difficult in its own way. For example, in 1994 and 1995 aviation had huge problems. They are very far from today's ones, there was no understanding at all how to solve them. Nevertheless, somehow they survived everything, stabilized the situation, learned how to manage airlines and airports in the commercial part. We did not know how to do this, we lived according to the budget, which was allocated by the Council of Ministers. After that, a new commercial life began - it was probably the hardest thing to get used to.

The current situation is a crisis, loss of passenger traffic. But we have already seen the loss of passenger traffic in 2008, in 2014 and in 2020. The most unexpected was in 2020, because such a lockdown was introduced that Moscow airports practically did not work, and some airlines stopped. Nevertheless, with the support of the government, we survived it.

I am sure that the current situation is also not endless. At some point, this will end and the restoration of transportation will begin. Surely there will be other directions. We have aircraft, technology, passengers, we will fly.

Five facts about Vitaly Vantsev

Born in 1969 in Khabarovsk. Graduated from the Leningrad Higher Military Topographic School and the Academy of Economics and International Economic Relations. PhD in Law.

In 1992, he began working at Vnukovo Airport, in 1997 he was appointed Deputy General DIRECTOR of the airport, and four years later he headed it.

In 2005, he resigned as CEO, was elected chairman of the board of directors of Vnukovo, which, by the end of 2021, dropped to fourth place in terms of the number of passengers served in Russia (18 million people in 2020), giving way to Pulkovo. But in the first quarter of 2022, Vnukovo returned to the top three, carrying 3.51 million passengers.

As of 2018, Vantsev owned 13.5% of JSC Vnukovo International Airport, another 61.5% - from his partner Vladimir Skoch (father of deputy Andrey Skoch), 25% plus one share - from the Federal Property Management Agency (more up-to-date information is not available ).

Since 2017, Vantsev, together with the former top manager of Yakutia Airlines Pavel Udod, has been developing the Azimuth airline (2.09 million passengers in 2021, 11th place among the largest carriers), specializing in flights to the south of Russia.

- That is, conditionally, not Europe, but Central and Southeast Asia?

- In the strategy of Vnukovo airport, we have long been guided not by Europe. In 2019, we were dominated by southern and Asian destinations. Back in 2015, we opened the China Friendly program with the understanding that this is a huge market that can bring us a large number of passengers. We are not canceling this program. Today there are lockdowns, but they will end - if not in 2022, then in 2023. Anyway, a Chinese passenger will fly to us, our passenger will fly to China . Therefore, everything will be restored, everything will be fine.

“Now Moscow is not a transit hub, but a final destination”

- The largest Moscow airports, including Vnukovo, have transferred part of their employees to part-time or idle mode. How long do you estimate this will last?

- 50% of airports' expenses are the payroll fund. Another 50% is utility bills. High energy and heat costs, because we work 24/7, all lanes and taxiways are always in working condition. But we have built both the airfield and the terminals in such a way that we can disconnect a certain part from operation. As a result, we are now working with one lane, a limited number of taxiways, air bridges, because today the passenger flow is small. This gives us a fairly good efficiency.

Sheremetyevo will close the international terminal D Politics

Another part of the costs is investment costs, which are spent on maintaining airfields, air terminals, aprons, etc. in a normal state. We completely stopped investments in development, reducing the investment program by 60%, from 2.5 billion rubles. up to about 800 million rubles. We left only those costs that are necessary to maintain the airfield and air terminal infrastructure and ensure flight safety.

Scheduled repair of airfield pavements has always been the most important task, and today its importance is only increasing, because in the context of a ban on the supply of foreign spare parts to Russia, including wheels, brakes, engines and engine blades, it is necessary to avoid incidents as much as possible. Otherwise, the stop of the aircraft, which previously could take a day or two, can now drag on for a month or a half. In order to prevent this, of course, it is necessary to keep airfield pavements in perfect condition. This is our main investment expenditure this year.

Downtime and reduction of working hours, and after it the reduction of staff salaries, of course, is a painful topic for everyone. But this measure allows us to save the team. All the people who work for us have been trained and taken for specific goals and tasks. It is hard to part with such people. This will probably be the last thing we do. But we still hope that the government will support us in this situation, just like in 2020. Therefore, I think that we will keep the team.

I hope that the restoration of transportation will go quietly, starting with the spring-summer schedule of next year - by analogy with the same 2021.

Vitaly Vantsev (Photo: Andrey Lyubimov / RBC)

- Can the downtime or part-time work be delayed until the beginning of next year?

- Yes. I would even say that it cannot, but it will drag on. Because I do not see, frankly, any other options for the development of events.

— How much did you manage to save thanks to these anti-crisis measures?

“It's too early to talk about it now. Let's wait for the results.

— Do you have a rough estimate of how much the airport has lost revenue since the beginning of the military special operation in Ukraine due to the cessation of flights to Europe and flights within the country, especially to the south?

- Discussing lost income is the most thankless task, because no one guaranteed that passengers would fly and bring you this income. And I would not write off everything here for one special operation.

But, based on the current situation, we expect to carry from 12 million to 13 million passengers (the original plan for 2022 was 18-18.5 million). We will end the year with a loss, probably like in 2020 (308 million rubles loss. ). If there is no help from the government, then the loss will be many times greater.

What help from the government do you expect? What is being discussed now?

- We sent our proposals to the government back in March, without inventing anything new. There was excellent support in 2020 [when airports and airlines were compensated for the loss of passengers compared to 2019 by allocating 10.9 billion rubles]. In the same logic, in government decrees, you just need to change the comparison of 2020 with 2019 to 2022 with 2021. And everything is ready!

Government allocates ₽10.9 billion to support airports Society

We also asked for a zero VAT rate for Moscow airports until the end of 2023, until the situation [with air travel] stabilizes. When the government provided a similar benefit to regional airports, Moscow was not included in this list. It was a transit hub and had many times more [passengers and income] than regional airports, and the goal was to stimulate transportation between regions. Now the situation has changed. Now Moscow is not a transit hub, but a final destination. There is nowhere to fly from here. Sochi and Mineralnye Vody are more likely to become transit hubs: the Rossiya airline has begun to develop a hub in Sochi, and Azimut has concentrated its fleet at the Minvod airport. The losses of Moscow airports are now the largest.

We also asked to introduce a duty-free trade regime at domestic airlines, also by the end of 2023. A large share of international shipping revenue came from commissions from Duty Free shops that allowed us to cover our expenses. But now most of these flights have been discontinued. In many countries of the world, and not only Western ones, this is generally enshrined in law: there is Duty Free for international flights and Duty Paid for domestic flights. This gives the passenger of domestic lines to buy goods at prices lower than they exist in the market - without customs duties. These passengers have already paid for the tickets, bringing taxes to the budget. The more they spend at the airport, the better it will ultimately be for the state.

- Where are your proposals being considered now? In the Ministry of Transport, with Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov? When should a decision be made?

- They are considered both in the Ministry of Transport and in the apparatus of Andrei Belousov. This is a complex measure. I think that [a decision] will be made on them based on the results of April-May, because exactly the forecasts that we made in March come true. We were not mistaken in anything at all - we practically guessed the percentage drop in our passenger traffic.

- The government has allocated subsidies to airlines for domestic flights worth 100 billion rubles, which airports should indirectly support. Is that still not enough for you?

— This does not work for all airports and primarily concerns regional airports. For many of them, the passenger traffic has not only not decreased, but, on the contrary, has increased. Airlines began to fly more, but in other directions: traditional destinations are simply closed. Therefore, no matter how much subsidies are given, there will still be no such destinations, and there will be no more passengers.

The number of passengers who, conditionally, need to fly from Novosibirsk to Moscow, of course. If earlier passengers flew to us from Novosibirsk, who then had to fly to Simferopol, Anapa, Krasnodar, Rostov and Belgorod, today these passengers do not fly to us and, most importantly, do not fly away from us. That is, the logic of such support does not work when there is nowhere to fly from Moscow.

Low-cost airline Pobeda will reduce the fleet of aircraft to 25 Business

- How will Vnukovo be affected by the decision of one of the base carriers - Pobeda, which has reduced its fleet by one and a half times, to 25 aircraft?

- If you look at the Pobeda's schedule for May 2021, you can see that about 50 destinations to which it flew, in principle, do not exist today, it simply cannot be flown there. Therefore, it operates a limited number of aircraft, some of the aircraft are on the platform. I believe that this is the right tactic in the current situation: it makes no sense to wind up losses for yourself by operating the entire fleet. We must first figure out how to live in a new life.

Photo: Evgeny Biyatov / RIA Novosti

— How many passengers did Vnukovo Airport serve in April?

- 990 thousand - a drop of 28.5% compared to 2021. In May, there will be a larger drop, and every month the percentage loss will increase. All the growth in passenger traffic that we saw in May 2021 since the start of the market recovery has collapsed.

- Is the airport's current income enough to service debts of 7 billion rubles?

- Our current income does not cover all costs, including interest on loans. But the hardest time for us will begin in June. In January-February 2022, we had enough money, and the payment for these two months came in March and April. We will see what happens in the second quarter. Estimated - no, [income will not be enough to service the debt].

“This is not the first special operation in our life”

- What did you feel at 5 am on February 24? How did you adapt and how did you adapt your team?

— I woke up at 7 am and calmly watched the news. I saw that a special operation had begun. I just went to work, gathered a team, and we began to adjust plans and budgets for 2022. That, in fact, is all. It was clear that it would not be easy. But is this the first special operation in our lives? There was the first Chechen war, and the second.

- Did you immediately understand that the special operation would drag on for at least several months?

- Not. I have nothing to do with the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, how can I immediately understand? I think that at once no one understood anything from the civilians. I am a military man in a past life, so I can say that in any special operation there are clarifications, regroupings, revisions of plans based on new inputs, and, believe me, they appear on the battlefield quite often - if not every day, then every other day for sure. Therefore, of course, it was not clear how it would all develop.

Obviously, the achievement of the goals and objectives that have been set for our servicemen will take a certain amount of time. I do not think that a month or even two, but much more. If by November this situation is somehow finalized, it will be a great result.

— Some top managers believe that the current situation is a new window of opportunity. Does this apply to Vnukovo and your other businesses? How can you continue to develop them?

— Probably, for some businesses this is a window of opportunity. But for the airport business, this is a difficult time to get through. I don't see any new windows of opportunity here, except to work on costs. But we are always working on them in peacetime, so we are unlikely to see anything new here.

But, for example, the Vnukovo Automobile Repair Plant No. 400 (VARZ-400), which is one of the components of my business, has a very high development potential. In 2019, we launched a large development program to master the overhaul of Sukhoi Superjet, Airbus and Boeing aircraft. The second segment, which is very important for us, is the repair of components. Initially, the program was designed for five years, but in the current situation, it is obvious that we will have to accelerate. We will, as they said in Soviet times, master the "five-year plan in three years."

It is good that we started in 2019, because we have come a long way and today there are practically no unknown tasks for us, we have already mastered a very large number of unit repairs. I think that by the end of 2022 we will have mastered all the other units. In this case, we will be able to repair 60-70% of defective parts on Airbus, Boeing and Sukhoi Superjet aircraft.

In addition, the market has grown exponentially. Previously, our airlines for the most part did not even want to repair components with us and simply sent them to Lufthansa Technik or other European services. Given that now there is no such possibility, we have something to fight for.

What made you interested in growing your aircraft maintenance business?

- Interest appeared in connection with the work of the Azimut airline (Vantsev is the founder and co-owner of the company. -). When its fleet grew to ten aircraft in 2019, we saw the problem that exists in the market with Superjet service, we felt it ourselves. We waited up to 500 days for some spare parts from Lufthansa Technik, where they were sent for repair. Then we realized that we need to develop this competence.

How much money are you investing in this area?

— More than 1 billion rubles. to the VARZ-400 development project, including production facilities, hangars. In the next few years, another 3 billion rubles will be invested.

- Do you want to create in Vnukovo an analogue of the "daughter" of "Aeroflot" "A-Technics" or the structure of the S7 Group - S7 Engineering?

- This is closer to S7 Engineering than to A-Technics. But S7 Engineering, in addition to the direct maintenance of aircraft, is repairing engines, and we are more specialized in the repair of components and assemblies. Together with S7 Engineering, we cover 90% of the repair needs for Boeing and Airbus aircraft in Russia. A-Technics is engaged only in general aircraft maintenance.

Vitaly Vantsev (Photo: Andrey Lyubimov / RBC)

“I had to redo all the flight programs”

- Azimuth has been flying only Russian Superjet aircraft since its inception. What benefits does it give you now?

— This is the very case that proves that it is still better to trust your own manufacturers than to deal with wonderful, but foreign manufacturers. For Azimuth, almost nothing has changed: our lease payments for aircraft are denominated in rubles, our development programs and costs, too.

The only thing is that we lost two base airports - Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar (closed since February 24 due to a special operation in Ukraine. -). But since last year we have opened a third branch - Minvody. Now we have relocated our entire fleet there and to Vnukovo from Rostov and Krasnodar. Of course, we had to redo all the flight programs. But our team quickly adapted, new routes were opened and sales were launched. I hope that in the end this year we will carry the same 2 million passengers as last year. Previously, we had a plan for 2022 of 2.5 million passengers.

— By how much will Azimut's international transportation increase?

— I think that the growth will be 15%.

— Will the company remain profitable in 2022?

- Yes. It will fall under the state support program for 100 billion rubles. I hope that Azimut will receive 300-400 million rubles from them. We estimated this approximately, based on the route network, the number of passengers and the average flight occupancy, which has grown to 85%.

IrAero warns of problems with repair of SSJ engines due to sanctions Business

“But the technical specialists of the airlines operating the Superjet say that there will soon be a shortage of pads, brakes, as they are unique to these aircraft. How long will these consumables last for your company?

- The availability of pads and brakes, other consumables - this, of course, is important. But these issues are solvable. We have set the goal of maintaining the airworthiness of 15 Superjet - and maybe there will be 16-17 - until 2030. The only serious problem for achieving this goal, we believe, is the situation with the engines. But this is a question of the United Engine Corporation (United Engine Corporation.). There are solutions, but they are not fast. It's good that a pool of replacement engines has been formed in the UEC, probably there are some engines that can be used for disassembly. We hope that in a year or two in Russia they will master the technology for repairing the hot part of the SaM146 engine.

— This year, Azimuth was going to start flying on more spacious Airbus A220 aircraft. The carrier's general director, Pavel Yekzhanov, said in April that the American Air Lease Corporation refused to supply aircraft and did not return the advance payment for them. What amount are we talking about?

- $ 2.5 million. We are negotiating on this matter, I hope the money will be returned. The acquisition of the A220 from Azimuth was planned based on the development needs of the airline. We wanted to put these aircraft in destinations where they would be more efficient than the Superjet. But today Russian carriers cannot fly on them.

— Have you and your partners in Azimuth been approached with a proposal to buy out the carrier's debts or letters of credit at the expense of the National Welfare Fund? Will this mechanism lead to an even greater increase in the share of the state?

- A mechanism has been created so that shareholders of companies can apply for funds from the NWF. In principle, it is very good for passengers. If necessary, the airline can use it to fulfill all its obligations to creditors and continue flying. We were not asked this question.

But I do not believe that this will lead to a significant increase in the state's share in the airlines. Probably, there may be some local stories, if we see them, then somewhere closer to October.

- Despite the difficult situation of the companies in the industry, should we expect major bankruptcies in the market?

- This year I would not think about bankruptcies, but about some kind of mergers. This could happen to enable carriers to operate their existing fleet more efficiently under restrictions. Fleet support restrictions are in store for us over the next five to six years. Until the MS-21 is mass-produced - at least 50 vehicles annually, we will live in a situation of shortage of carrying capacities. This just might spur airlines to merge, which, by the way, is not a very bad story. I know five or six airlines that would be nice to merge. They would work more efficiently, the utilization (intensity of operation.) of the fleet and its reliability would be better.

- Maybe Azimuth has plans to merge with someone else?

- Never say never". If there are good, understandable proposals, it will bring additional income, why not? It's all a matter of the moment. At the moment, there are no plans or tasks for the merger of Azimuth. We set the task only of independent development of the airline.

“70 million passengers will be a great result”

- The authorities said that thanks to subsidies to airlines for 100 billion rubles. civil aviation in 2022 should carry 100 million passengers. Do you believe in it?

- Not. The government has created conditions for airlines. But due to the lack of the “fattest” markets for the summer, it will not be possible to transfer so many passengers.

- What then is your forecast for passenger traffic at the end of the year?

— If we carry 70 million passengers this year, it will be a great result.

Airlines propose almost 100 measures to the government to support the industry Business

- With the help of subsidies, the state expects to contain the rise in airfare. Will it help?

- Yes. According to the Ministry of Economy, inflation is slowing down. The key rate of the Central Bank has decreased. Exchange rates not only stabilized, but reached the level of 2016. Therefore, I do not see why the cost of tickets should increase with the support provided by the state. If there is an increase, then this is direct speculation and you need to deal with specific carriers.

But of course there are seasonal spikes. This is not a speculative, but a normal story - for example, on May holidays, ticket prices go up by leaps and bounds. But the average prices for any domestic destination did not rise, and for some of them even began to fall below the level of 2021. This effect is provided by state support. Plus, due to it, we will see an increase in demand on certain routes, on which this was not the case before. Based on these data, the Ministry of Economy will build development plans in the future.

On international destinations that are not subsidized by the government, the cost of tickets will, of course, increase. In some areas it will increase significantly.

— That is, state support should block the effect of inflation?

- Of course. 100 billion rubles is 1 rub. per passenger-kilometre, and this is a good help for us not to increase the cost of tickets. It covers about 20% of air travel costs. It will definitely help in 2022. Next year, all airlines must prepare to survive on their own.

- What is the fate of low-cost airlines in Russia, which were locomotives for low prices due to high flight hours?

— The low-cost airline flies efficiently, because it manages its costs differently than classic carriers. Today, Pobeda shows the raid on its aircraft exactly the same as in 2021. The download is good too. My question is: what will change?

Vitaly Vantsev (Photo: Andrey Lyubimov / RBC)

- For example, aircraft will age, and this lengthens their service life.

- In the future, the aircraft will age, I agree. In the winter schedule, they will get up for more labor-intensive forms of maintenance than in the previous year or two. But there will also be fewer directions. If the market does not expand, the same "Pobeda", which reduced the fleet to 25 aircraft, can let 16 cars standing on the platform for cannibalization, then it will continue to work as efficiently as before.

- In 2022, quite a few managers leave their posts, including the heads of Aeroflot Mikhail Poluboyarinov and Pobeda Andrey Kalmykov. Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev explained Poluboyarinov's resignation by the fact that not everyone is able to work in stressful conditions. How do you explain it?

Andrey is very stress-resistant. The work that he did in Pobeda showed its result - it is absolutely useless to argue with this. But he did not invent a low-cost, but simply studied the model of how low-cost airlines work in the world, and managed to do it no worse, and maybe even better. In the current conditions, it was necessary to change something in the HEAD, and this, I think, played a key role in his decision to leave his post.

Are you personally stress resistant?

- Non-stress-resistant people in aviation have nothing to do. The business itself is such that every minute something can happen. Considering that we are responsible for a large number of lives, and on any front of our work in aviation, this is initially quite a serious stress.

- Do you still intend to buy out the state's share in Vnukovo (25.1%)? Has the relevant option that you had before the start of 2022 been extended?

- Interest remains, the agreement will be extended until 2030. Moreover, the agreement contains conditions that, in general, insure the government [against price reduction], although it is clear that today these shares are worth nothing.

Qatar Airways to buy 25% of Vnukovo airport Business

— Are you continuing negotiations with Qatar Airways, which has been interested in a share in the airport since 2018?

— We have not discussed this topic with Qatar Airways for about three years. Other foreign investors from "friendly" countries remained interested in buying a stake in the airport. But in today's environment, we definitely won't agree on the price. No independent expert will be able to evaluate the block of shares.

When we spoke to Qatar Airways, we didn't just see it as a cash deal. They, as an anchor carrier in the Middle East, could attract a number of other foreign carriers from other airports to Vnukovo. Now they can no longer offer it to us.

— How is one of the largest business aviation terminals in Europe — Vnukovo-3 — developing?

— The number of flights has been reduced by three times. But there are business jet flights: our country is large, there are a lot of factories - there are places for the owners and managers of these factories to fly, etc. Therefore, the life of business aviation is preserved. But if in a past life there were 120-130 daily flights to Vnukovo-3, today there are 30-40 flights. These are mainly flights within Russia. But still, there was a certain percentage (in April 2022 - 181 flights) of international traffic to "friendly" countries.

— Are there plans to complete the construction of the metro station in Vnukovo by the end of 2022 and launch it next year?

- Yes. Infrastructure projects are being implemented not for the sake of the current situation, but for years to come - for 10-15 years. There will still be a way out of the crisis, people will need to fly. Therefore, no circumstances should affect the implementation of infrastructure projects.

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