"Dozens of airlines just went bankrupt, stopped. We did not stop for a second, "said the CEO of Belavia, Igor Cignets in an interview with the program" Week "of the SVT TV channel, Tut.BY.
- Dozens of airlines simply went bankrupt, stopped. We did not stop for a second, none for one day. We were flying, we were very hard. With the support of our state, we fought in foreign markets. And we continued to carry. Yes, Belarusians, maybe not strongly and allowed, as well as all others, but then we were concentrated on transit transport. We exported Americans and police officers from Istanbul through Minsk, Paris, Amsterdam to America. We took the citizens of Sweden from the same Turkey to Sweden, drove sailors around the world. And at the expense of this survived and continue to survive. Now there is a small height, I hope we will restrain, "he said.
Ciganese reminded that due to the pandemic, a number of countries were closed, some of them still have no opportunity to fly.
- Suppose we announced the extension of the ban on flights to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. We cannot fly to Riga, although it is strange: we are flying to Vilnius, Tallinn, Helsinki, Stockholm, and Riga is closed. For most other destinations, we fly, but there are restrictions for passengers.
Ciganese said that today Belavia performs seven flights a week to Russia - five to Moscow and one per week in St. Petersburg and Rostov. To the COVID-19 airline performed more than 150 flights per week.
- 7 flights and 150 - you can understand the scale of disaster. But for a number of directions, we not only recovered, but also increase the number of flights. Just the other day, decisions were made on Vilnius and Tallinn. We want to fly more in Warsaw, but it is not yet possible to negotiate. We want to fly more to Uzbekistan. We opened a new direction - Dubai, flew twice a week (from Minsk to Dubai), from the end of March we are planning the third flight, add third frequency. The flight is successful.
Commented on the general director and ticket prices.
- During COVID, it is impossible to say that the economic laws that work at normal time are already working. They do not work. And people complained because they were accustomed to some kind of direction to fly at a lower price, and then they get higher. But in principle, all over the world now occurs. All complained when they were allowed to fly to Moscow once a week, and Aeroflot from Moscow. Prices were with us - the minimum price is about 250 euros there and back, at Aeroflot slightly more. It became more flights, prices began to decline. Economic laws earned. There will be more flights, we will be restored by flights - prices will come to the state in which they were before COVID.
Internal task for the company he called restoration to the level of its 2019 indicators. Tut.BY.