MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/. Russia’s second largest airline, Transaero, has no plans to suspend flights in spite of certain problems that the Russian commercial aviation sector has run into, Transaero’s Director General Olga Pleshakova said in Facebook on Sunday.
“Any suspension of flights, either before the New Year or after it, is out of the question,” she wrote.
“Along with it, Transaero calls attention to the broad use of governmental support (by Russian businesses - TASS) in the period of 2008 and 2009,” Pleshakova wrote. “It is also enjoyed today by the largest Russian banks and other companies that play the role of backbone elements because they experience the biggest pressures from the current situation.”
Sources told TASS earlier on Sunday that Transaero had turned to the government and loaners with a request f assistance. They claimed it might suspend flights as early as before the New Year.
A federal official close to the Transport Ministry told TASS the authorities were doing everything in their power to prevent the actual suspension. He also said the airline was playing a backbone role for the industry and that it stood to get aid.
The official did not specify, however, what form the aid might take and how it might be granted.