The Best Russian Airlines

"Aviaexpresscruise" (registered in Mineralnye Vody, based in Moscow), Arkhangelsk Airlines, Antlant-Soyuz (Moscow), Antran (all-cargo air carrier, Moscow), Aeroflot, AJT Air International (Moscow), Bryansk State Airlines, Belgorod State Airlines, Volga-Dnepr (all-cargo air carrier, Ulyanovsk), Vostok (Khabarovsk), Domodedovo Airlines, Ilavia (all-cargo air carrier, Moscow), East Line (all-cargo air carrier), Kavminvodyavia (Mineralnye vody), Kogalymavia (Kogalym), Kras Air (Kransoyarsk), Omskavia, Pulkovo Airlines (St. Petersburg), Samara (Samara), Saratov Airlines, Sakhalin Airways (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Sibaviatrans (Krasnoyarsk), Sibir (Novosibirsk), Transaero (Moscow), Tuvaavia (Kysyl), Tymenaviatrans, Ural Airlines (Yekaterinburg), Chitaavia, Chelyabinsk Airline.

The "Wings of Russia-98" national award ceremony announced yesterday the best Russian air carriers.

The annual Wings of Russia award ceremony is taking place for the second time. The Wings of Russia was established by Air Transport Operator Association (ATOA), InfoMOST Consulting and Air Transport Review magazine. To become an award nominee, an airline should submit its performance data based on the official reports. The winner is elected through a secret vote by the public committee composed of experienced industry professionals (excluding airline executives) and journalists.

While the airline performance is being assessed against quantity factors, the traveling public is keener to know if they can depart on time and receive an outstanding in-flight service. Abroad the best airlines are usually determined through polling of frequent flyers not via comparison of quantity factors. Unfortunately the Wings of Russia organizers do not have enough funding to carry out such surveys.

In fact Russian airlines do not take a great care of customers at all. For instance, one of the air ticket items reads that time indicated in the airline schedule and other documents is not guaranteed. The air carrier also reserves the right to hand over its passengers to another air carrier for transportation, replace its aircraft, change or cancel stops indicated in the ticket as necessary. The schedule could be also changed without any prior advise to passengers.

In-flight service and passenger services are also underdeveloped in Russia. Thus, the frequent flyer program, which allows passengers to collect miles and on reaching the certain mileage, receive a free ticket, is somewhat unusual in Russia. Up to now only Transaero adopted it. Recently Aeroflot also announced its intent to implement such a program.

Sometimes airlines try to justify themselves by saying that they do not know what quotients should be used to measure up the quality of service. It is simple. Usually on-time departure rate is expressed in percents. Thus if a foreign airline reports a 96% on-time departure rate, it means that only 4 flights were delayed.

All in all the results of the award ceremony is of some interest to passengers too. All award recipients are large and successful air carriers. Even if they do not pay enough attention to the passenger service, they will not delay their flights for the uncertain time period due to delayed aircraft or missing jet fuel as for instance Vnukovo Airlines do. Therefore if you prefer the air carrier's reliability to the sophisticated in-flight cuisine, chose one of the Wings of Russia award recipients.

The Wings of Russia-98 Award Recipients

The best 1998 domestic airline with traffic volume of more than 1 billion passenger-kilometers: Aeroflot; the best 1998 domestic airline with traffic volume of 0,5 - 1 billion passenger-kilometers: Pulkovo Airlines; the best 1998 domestic airline with traffic volume of 0,2-0,5 billion passenger-kilometers: Samara Airlines; the best 1998 domestic airline with traffic volume up to 0,2 billion passenger-kilometers Sibaviatrans. The best 1998 international airline with traffic volume of more than 100 million passenger-kilometers: Aeroflot, The best 1998 all-cargo domestic and international airline with traffic volume of more than 10 million ton-kilometers: Volga-Dnepr; the most efficient airline: Kogalymavia ; Special awards were also presented to Aviaexpresscruise "Survival among Sharks", Braynks Airlines "Gaining Altitude" , Orenburg Airlines and Tymenaviatrans " Memories of Future", Kavminvodyavia " For the Professional Style".