RUSSIA: Reaction Of The Tourism Market To The Tragedy In The Sky Of Egypt

According to the first half of the day on the 2nd of November, travel agencies report insignificant number of cancellations of tours. According to the evaluation of ATOR Analytical service, the number of cancellations of tours with "Kogalymavia" flights is not more than 1% of the total flow on this carrier.

ATOR analytical service predicts a decrease in the number of bookings of all tours that include flights. Moreover, the decrease will affect both foreign tours, and domestic tours in Russia. At the same time analysts believe that demand will begin to recover quickly enough – approximately in 2-3 weeks. "This is one of the features of our market: acute and immediate reaction to the tragic incident and, at the same time, capacity for quick recovery", –the analytical service ATOR emphasizes.

The Federal Air Transport Agency is currently conducting an inspection of "Kogalymavia". Comprehensive testing will last for 20 working days. It will be finished by the 30th of November. According to the Head of the Transport Committee of ATOR Dmitry Gorin, at the moment, any versions of the causes of the tragedy that occurred in the morning of October 31 are not excluded. Meanwhile, increasingly diverse versions appear in the media. "Media speculations and populism of the politics regarding the tragedy, which caused human victims, are inexcusable", –Mr. Gorin stressed.

The Federal Transportation Inspection Service issued an order for "Kogalymavia" on the prohibition of flights of A321 aircrafts without additional inspection. The supervisory authority notes that the airline must assess all the risks, carry out operative preventive activities and make a decision on the use of aircraft of the specified type, providing acceptable level of flight safety.

As explained by the representatives of the air carrier, all flights of "Kogalymavia" airline are planned to run as expected. "The inspection of planes is being carried out in stages. The operation of one aircraft of the mentioned type at a time is suspended for the purpose of risk assessment. The inspection takes from one to two hours, during that time specialists evaluate the capability of the aircraft to perform the flight. Upon the issuance of a relevant positive conclusion, the plane is permitted to carry out the flight", – the airline informs.

Andrey Averyanov, the Engineering Deputy General Director of "Kogalymavia", answering the question regarding the emergency situations involving the aircraft that occurred prior to the day of the disaster, noted that the tail of the airplane was damaged during landing in Egypt before. After that incident the specialists of Airbus conducted full maintenance of the aircraft and brought it into full compliance with the requirements of the technical regulations.

Andrey Averyanov also rejected the version of the crash due to the aircraft wearout and ageing: "the resource of aircrafts of this class is 120 000 kilometers. This aircraft has not reached the number of 60,000 km yet".