Ruminations on Russia

No this is not about having to board long plane rides with nothing but your underwear.

Instead the wise and mature business heads that are otherwise known as the government are drafting a plan that would have Sheremeytevo run all other airports.

This is clearly a good idea because:

Sheremeytevo is clearly the worst run airport in the my experience anywhere in the world (although CDG runs it close)
Why allow well run airports take passengers from badly run airports with an indeterminate journey time which could be 40 minutes or 4 hours.
Everyone should suffer the same pain except of course those who draft the laws who have blue flashing lights and fly in private jets on their government salaries
Only a complete fuckwit could dream up a plan like this
There are no other reasons why this is a good idea

I hope that this plan will take as long to come about as the fabled rail line to Sheremeytevo which is at the 8 years and counting stage.

Plan Calls for Sheremetyevo to Manage Other Airports
Bloomberg

The government may put state-owned Sheremetyevo Airport in charge of other airports in the country to improve efficiency and pool financial resources for their development, according to a plan being drafted by the Transportation Ministry.

Sheremetyevo, which is 100 percent state-owned, may become a management company for an undisclosed number of domestic airports in which the government also holds stakes, Transportation Ministry spokesman Timur Khikmatov said by telephone Thursday.

The plan reflects the government's push to control strategic sectors of the economy, including transportation. Earlier this year, the government said it wanted to combine several domestic airlines with Aeroflot, the country's largest carrier. It is also merging aircraft manufacturers to form the Unified Aircraft Corporation.

Russia's 185 airlines flew 35.1 million passengers last year, 3.9 percent more than in 2004. Their growth is constrained, however, by limited resources to expand fleets because of high duties on imported jets and insufficient domestic production of airplanes.

Khikmatov said there was no definite list of airports that would participate in the government plan. He said it might involve airports in St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Sochi, Krasnoyarsk, Samara and Yekaterinburg.

“It makes sense to bring them together to turn this amorphous government collection into a stronger player on the international market,” Sheremetyevo deputy chief executive officer Dmitry Kalinin said by telephone. He added that the plan was still at an early stage.

[composed and posted with ecto]

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