New players in Russia's aviation industry?

The 2nd Annual Conference Aviation Forum 2009 on March 27th, 2009, may point out news trends in the industry. The Russian business daily Vedomosti (organizer of the event) expects that "new large players will soon appear in the aviation field of Russia."

According to the conference's announcement some airlines that not long ago claimed for leadership are now bankrupt. Some outsiders leave, others have nothing else to do but be overtaken by stronger and more successful airlines.

The conference covers questions, such as:

• How will the market evolve?
  
• Which player will win an advantage under the new economic conditions?
  
• What advantages can those remaining in the Russian market draw from the world crisis aftereffects?
  
• What aviation business development strategies will be most efficient? What awaits the plane making industry?

The first Aviation Forum took place in spring 2008 and aroused great interest on the part of chief industry representatives. Over 200 people visited the conference, speeches were delivered by Boris Korol, deputy minister, Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, Evgeny Bachurin, former director, Federal Air Traffic Agency, Valery Okulov, chief executive officer, Aeroflot - Russian Airlines, Vitaly Vantsev, Board Member of Vnukovo International Airport JSC and other aviation market participants.

Topics for discussion

• Market redistribution. Bankruptcies of air carriers and companies consolidation and appearance of new players in the market
• Mergers of regional carriers and problems of social carriage in the context of economic changes
• Changes in the industry regulation: a single license for domestic carriage, competitive basis for the issue of international carriage licenses, change of the Federal Air Traffic Agency functions. To what extent have these measures improved the companies' position?
• New rules of relations with fuel producers and suppliers. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the existing schemes?
• Reduction of fuel prices. Market demonopolization
• Cooperation between airports and air carriers: formation of new holdings
• Main strategies of Russian and foreign plane makers: joint projects, situation with existing orders, airplanes of the future Provision with airplanes and equipment. How is the Russian Federation Government program for the aircraft fleet renovation being implemented?
• The future of leasing as one of the most promising lines of industry development
  

The following speakers will take part

• market regulators
  
• Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation,
  
• Federal Air Transport Agency of the Russian Federation,
  
• Ministry of Industry and Power,
  
• Ministry of Economic Development and Trade,
  
• Federal Anti-Monopoly Service,
  
• Federal Air-Navigation Service,
  
• Russian State Duma Committee for Power, Transport and Communications,
  
• United Aircraft Corporation,
  
• top-managers of Russian and Foreign air carriers, aircraft manufacturers, fuel companies, associations, investment entities, consultants and market analysts.
  

If you are interested, please feel free to contact Elizaveta Zyryanova, the Project Manager, concerning all agenda issues at phone +7 495 232-32-00, ext. 1184 or via e-mail: e.zyryanova@vedomosti.ru.

Please, contact Ekaterina Potapova for sponsorship and advertisement issues at phone +7 495 232-32-00, ext. 1180 or e.potapova@vedomosti.ru.

To register, fill out an application form at our website: http://events.vedomosti.ru/reg.shtml?avia9 Participant's registration fee is 24500 roubles (without VAT). Please, contact Natalya Bondareva for registration issues at phone +7 495 232-32-00 ext.1558 or n.bondareva@vedomosti.ru

YushMash in Ukraine stumbles

Ukraine's financial crises might also affect its prominent missile and satellite manifacturer Yuzhmash, the Ukrainian weekly Kiev Post reports in its latest issue, quoting Interfax.

Like Ukravtodor Yuzhmash is seen facing "debt-servicing challenges in 2009", says Oleksandr Shlapak, the first deputy of President Viktor Yushchenko's office."The most serious problem will be with servicing corporate liabilities guaranteed by the state in 2009. The point at issue is, as you know, Ukravtodor. We've managed to settle part of the problem: Credit Suisse signed an agreement on re-lending half of the sum of the credit - $960 million. Talks are still under way with Morgan Stanley.

A similarly difficult situation will occur with Yuzhmash, whose payments fall due in February. As far as I know, Yuzhmash has no revenues to pay off its debt. It means the payments should come from the budget," he told reporters on Monday (Jan 26, 2009).

A third candidate for trouble is NJSC NaftoGaz Ukrainy."It has liabilities worth UAH 26 billion – these are foreign and domestic loans… I'm sure Naftogaz has no extra resources today to settle these debts. Most likely, the point at issue will be refinancing," he said.

In this connection, Shlapak said that this year the budget is facing difficulties even with the payment of wages and pensions, and this is when it's nearly impossible to raise funds on the foreign market.

OSCE finally looks into the air

The OSCE is about to investigate one of the crucial channels of illicit arms trade: the air. Some airports in central and eastern Europe, e.g. Bratislava, but also in the Arabian hemisphere, e.g. Sharjah, have formerly been well-known hubs for armstraders, particularly from Russia.

Today (December 4th, 2006), the Chairman-in-Office, Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht, has called for a wide range of organizations and companies to attend a special meeting, early next year, to work on ways to fight the illicit trafficking of small arms and light weapons by air.

"Certain progress has been made on some subjects such as small arms and light weapons," Minister De Gucht said according to an OSCE press release, referring to military aspects of security. But still, the proliferation of small arms poses a serious threat to human security. According to the OSCE small arms kill more than half a million people a year, or 1,400 each day.

Near some of the airports in the regions, small specialized airlines have settled, using lax regulation for air cargo shipment, particularly concerning transit routes. Secret services of smaller central European countries do not see themselves capable of controlling the routes of these smaller air companies. And air control authorities in some of the target countries lack finances to efficiently control where the cargo is finally going to.