Originally Posted by
asnovici
True, Atlant-Soyuz s a joke of an airline, but something tells me with Luzhkov's (Mayor of Moscow) ambitions, they will make something good out of the new airline. Vnukovo Airport is an example how these people are able to turn something rather awful into something nice and effective.
Why didn't he make something good of Moscow's infrastructre in his years in office then? Oh, strike that - why didn't he make something good of Moscow? Rumour is the greedy bugger is getting the boot soon - hopefully before he's done wrecking
my neighbourhood
Originally Posted by
chalf
From the article in today's Vedomosit, my impression was that the government was creating a clear #2 flag carrier, to compete more effectively against the likes of S7 and UN.
And Aeroflot - which they're going to privatise sooner or later.
Originally Posted by
chalf
The move to VKO is also quite strategic, as it will help to alleviate the overcrowding that was starting to afflict DME and move the business from a privately held airport (DME) to one linked to the Moscow city government (VKO).
There's not much love lost between the Federal gov't and Moscow so I wouldn't count on it being a factor. I think VKO was chosen as the already existing Moscow base of FV (Rossiya, ex-Pulkovo Airlines) - the State's new pet airline they're lavishing all the money and attention on.
Originally Posted by
chalf
From my one experience, calling VKO "nice and effective" is something of an overstatement, though some effort had been made and it was not the worst airport I have seen.
I don't know. It's not particularly nice - let's see what the new terminal looks like - but I'd take VKO over DME any day. Well, except for the lounges, probably - do they have any? But getting to downtown Moscow is a breeze and arrivals area at DME has been a real zoo lately. (Truth be told, all of my flying into VKO has been domestic except for one flight from TBS so I have no idea how well they cope with immigration and customs. But it can't be worse than DME, right? Because nothing can)