MOSCOW, September 26. /TASS/. Greece’s Ellinair airline company has said it is ready to return at its own expense stranded passengers of Russian VIM-Avia that declared charter flights suspension due to the lack of floating assets, the Federal Air Transport Agency said in a report.
"The Greek airline company Ellinair has said it is ready to transport VIM-Avia charter flight passengers at its own expense," the agency said.
On Tuesday, Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said Greek companies can join efforts to repatriate stranded customers of VIM-Avia. According to him, Greek companies are interested in bringing home Russian tourists who arrived in Greece for holidays on VIM-Avia planes. He said the Transport Ministry "will meet them half-way" in this.
On Monday, VIM-Avia, Russia’s tenth largest carrier, announced plans to suspend charter flights over its financial problems. Other Russian airlines may help perform the company’s flights to socially important destinations in the Far East.
The airline company obliged to transport more than 200,000 passengers before the end of this year.
The Federal Air Transport Agency initiated an unscheduled inspection of VIM-Avia. According to the agency, substantial delays in the flights were linked to the company’s debts to fueling companies. Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov stated the ministry controlled the situation with VIM-Avia flight delays.
This is a second wave of major delays the carrier is facing. In May 2017, the carrier started mass flight delays at various airports. The company explained it by late arrivals of the aircraft. In order to stabilize the situation, the airline partially reduced its charter program for the summer period, cancelling 13 routes. Other carriers also helped to cope with the delays.