RUSSIA: Pobeda Airline Fires Pilots After They Were Found Drunk On Duty

Russia’s Pobeda airline has sacked two pilots who attempted to fly an airliner from the Siberian city of Surgut to Dagestan’s Makhachkala while being under the influence, the company said in a statement, citing CEO Andrei Kalmykov.

According to media reports, two intoxicated Pobeda pilots sought to carry out a flight from Surgut to Makhachkala on May 26.

They were determined to be drunk during a pre-flight medical check.

Pobeda has zero tolerance for staff members who drink liquor even outside their work hours, Kalmykov said, as cited by the airline’s press service.

Unfortunately, the medical staff at Surgut airport breached medical check guidelines so Pobeda was deprived of the opportunity to fire the pilots under the relevant article.

However, they were immediately suspended and fired upon mutual agreement of the parties, he added.

The airline’s CEO also said that the company would request that lawmakers amend current legislation so that alcohol consumption by air transport staff can be severely punished.


Tourism Observer

RUSSIA: Traffic Through Moscow Airports Of Vnukovo, Domodedovo And Sheremetyevo Drops In August

Domodedovo International Airport
Passenger traffic through the three airports of Moscow namely Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo continued to climb in August compared to the same month in 2016, albeit at a slower rate than in July 2017.

Vnukovo saw its traffic increase by 22.9% to 2.071 million passengers- against 31.5% in July; Domodedovo, by 5% to over exceeding 3.5 million (5.8% in July); Sheremetyevo, by 19.6% to 4.141 million (22.9% in July).

At Vnukovo, international traffic continued to grow faster than domestic passenger numbers; it increased by 77.3% in August to 875,000 passengers.

The most popular destinations includes Antalya, Larnaca, Istanbul, Barcelona, Pathos, Dushanbe, Baku, and Heraklion. Domestic traffic grew by just 0.4% to 1.196 million passengers.

The most popular destinations were Sochi, Simferopol, Anapa, Mineralnye Vody, St. Petersburg, Makhachkala, Krasnodar, Surgut, and Rostov-on-Don.

A similar trend was observed at Domodedovo, where international traffic grew 15% year-on-year, exceeding 1.6 million passengers.

The most popular destinations were Antalya, Tivat, and Barcelona. Some 1.9 million passengers traveled on domestic routes, 2% down from the same month last year.

The fastest growing routes within Russia were to Krasnodar, Kaliningrad, Ufa, Makhachkala, and Sabetta.

At Sheremetyevo, the trend got reversed: international traffic grew at a slower rate than domestic in August.

The airport served 4.141 million passengers traveling abroad, up 18.3% year-on-year.

Domestic traffic, although smaller in absolute figures at 1.798 million, grew faster at 21.3%.

The most popular destinations out of Sheremetyevo in the past eight months were Paris, Tel Aviv, Prague, Beijing, Shanghai, St. Petersburg, Simferopol, Sochi, Yekaterinburg, and Krasnodar.



Tourism Observer