MINSK, 29 October (BelTA) – The Belarusian air carrier Belavia has faced serious challenges this year due to the pandemic, BelTA learned from Belavia First Deputy Director General for Production Organization Gleb Parkhamovich during a press conference held on 29 October to discuss Belarusian aviation, ways of development, technical state, and the renewal of the aircraft fleet.
The executive said: “The air carrier has faced serious challenges this year. Passenger traffic grew by over 40% in January-February. We were optimistic about the future but unfortunately the events that have happened made us seriously revise our routines. In April 2020 passenger traffic was less than 8% of the figure registered in April 2019. It was about 12% in May. Nevertheless, the company has not fired a single employee – virtually 2,000 people continue working for Belavia. We have not rejected plans to give mandatory first jobs to graduates of the Belarusian State Aviation Academy either. We've hired over 20 graduates.”
In his words, Belavia continues honoring financial commitments to partners. In particular, Belavia has some serious commitments to the Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus (DBRB). “We work together to implement three stages of the investment project that provides for buying aircraft. The project is partially financed by the Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus. At present our loan liabilities are close to $90 million. We've honored all our commitments to the bank on schedule this year,” Gleb Parkhamovich noted.
He also noted that the ownership of an aircraft fleet represents a major part of the financial commitments. “If aircraft remain idle, it is difficult to pay the lease. Nevertheless, we've done a lot of work with all our leasing companies. Ways to reduce payments and reschedule them were found. We've resumed normal work on some of our arrangements since then,” the executive added.
Belavia had rather ambitious plans for this year but they had to change due to the current situation. “Nevertheless, we now offer flights to two new destinations – Tashkent and Vienna. If we talk about next year's plans, everything will depend on how fast the market recovers, on what conditions we will work in the future,” Gleb Parkhamovich explained.
Speaking about this year's performance, he noted that Belavia expects a major decline but it will be lower than that of other air carriers. “We expect that passenger traffic will be 40-45% of last year's level. It is a rather good figure in current conditions. It will allow us to honor financial commitments to our employees and our partners,” he summed up.
