You're reading: AeroSvit assesses preliminary losses from pilots’ protest at least $100,000

Kyiv-based AeroSvit Airline assesses preliminary losses from pilots' protest held on August 1, 2011 at $100,000.

"Today there are several components of the sum. First we had to send some passengers on flights of other companies, understanding our responsibility to passengers, we bought tickets for them. Second, we fed passengers and accommodated them in hotels at their requests. Third, we leased a VIP hall at the Boryspil airport where the passengers stayed," acting AeroSvit Director General Oleksandr Avdeyev told the press on Thursday.

He added that the company is to calculate losses linked to the satisfaction of claims of passengers after the protest.

"Here the figure will be higher: people [missed connections to] other flights, people lost some business projects or recreation," he said.

He added that expenses on the fulfillment of claims of the protesting pilots are half of the direct losses the company faces.

The top manager also said that the carrier has not paid compensation to passengers, although the company has started receiving claims after the protest.

"Claims have started arriving. Our lawyers are working on them. We have liabilities to our passengers, according to internal documents and Ukrainian law. There are some ways to settle the conflict – starting from pecuniary, non-pecuniary compensation, bonuses… There are special procedures in the company, which are used and will be used so to satisfy all claims of passengers," he said.

He added that the airline had fully fulfilled all of the demands made by pilots.

"The first demand is to pay wages for June on August 1, 2011. These are additional payments for flying, the payment term of which expires on July 31, 2011. The second demand concerned the payment of a debt on long service for 2008-2009. The third demand was to pay a debt for wages of co-pilots of Boeing-737 aircrafts. The fourth demand was included under request of the trade union. The company’s administration is obliged not to take action against pilots who took part in the protest," Avdeyev said.

He said that the company was ready to pay additional payment to pilots for flying on August 1 or August 2, although the pilots refused to fly without a warning.

He added that AeroSvit trained co-pilots using its own funds and then the funds were deducted from co-pilots’ wages. However, this time the condition was not registered properly, which gave a chance to pilots to demand the return of the money.

CJSC AeroSvit was established in 1994. Its fleet consists of 16 medium-range Boeing 737s and seven long-haul Boeing 767s. In addition to that, it operates Airbus 320, Airbus 321, Embraer 145, Embraer 195 and An-148 aircraft jointly with partner airlines.

According to AeroSvit, Dutch-based Gilward Investments B.V. owns about 38% of the stocks in the company, the State Property Fund has a 22.4% stake, and the Ukrainian companies GenAviaInvest, Investment Advisors Group and Bureau hold 24.99%, 9.8% and 4.8% of the airline’s shares respectively.