AZUR AIR: WHETHER THE COMPANY WILL SURVIVE THE PANDEMIC?

The restrictions on the flights abroad, imposed by the state due to the coronavirus pandemic, can hurt the entire airline industry. The forecasts of various experts suggest that Russian airlines will loose from 45 to 100 billion dollars.

The problem is that analysts cannot make more accurate calculations yet, because the geopolitical situation is constantly changing, and there is simply no common method, by means of which it will be possible to calculate the losses.

It is not a secret that many employees, working for airlines, no longer believe that their companies will be able to survive the pandemic without sufficient state assistance. In conditions when the main air fleet is not being used temporarily, and the ticket sales are not carried out, the question of where the companies should take funds to pay the salaries and debts for downtime period is open.

The analysts believe that the first bankruptcy may occur in the summer.

While the world alliances ask for support from the authorities and airports, Russian carriers continue to fight the coronavirus in their own way, carrying out the export of Russians from other countries.

One of these companies is “AZUR air”. According to unconfirmed information from the regional media, the majority of employees were sent home by the management. There is no information of what would happen next. However, the opacity of the company's plans for ordinary employees and the panic mood seem to be dubious, taking into account that the same airline is actively involved in the repatriation of Russian citizens from other countries. In particular, it is known that on March 29, about 100 Russian citizens will be able to leave Rio de Janeiro aboard the special flight of“AZUR Air” company. On the way, the same board should pick up 200 people from the capital of Peru.

The situation was more complicated with the delivery of passengers from the UAE. More than 500 citizens, who were supposed to fly to Moscow and Krasnoyarsk, were forced to be detained in the Emirates. After the intervention of the tour operator ANEX Tour and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, permission to export citizens was obtained. The story about people, who got stuck in the Philippines and greeted AZUR Air aircraft, arriving on the islands, with applause, has already spread by users on the Internet.

We should remind that on March 17, the Federal Air Transport Agency warned about the possibility of bankruptcy of a number of Russian companies. On March 22, the flights were allowed only to the capitals of certain foreign states, and on March 26 both charter and regular flights were terminated.

The airlines were allowed to carry out the export of Russian citizens home or carry out humanitarian transportation, cargo, mail and ambulance flights. Will the “AZUR air” company survive in this situation and whether it will be able to switch to domestic transportation and not fall into bankruptcy this year, is a big question.

After the publication of the material, “AZUR Air” representatives contacted our editorial office and denied the information about impending bankruptcy, noting that the media reporting the fake news.

“The airline has the necessary reserves to mitigate the negative impact on its operations of the consequences of the fight against the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19. A set of damping measures is taken. The main goal of the airline in the current period is the fulfillment of obligations - it is necessary to safely deliver all Russian citizens abroad to their homeland. The airline continues to operate the flights from Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Thailand and Vietnam and is ready to provide additional special export flights from other countries, ”the representative of AZUR Air commented.