Situation Centre Aeroflot

- More recently, you have opened a situational center. What is included in its main objectives?

Situation Centre Is the take of the main center, which is used when unforeseen situations occur. One can recall the three-day ice collapse, which recently shook the whole of Russia. I first encountered this. Before that, I did not have this experience, and I saw the helplessness of some of our services. We did not understand which passengers were on board. Where from them VIP passengers, and where not VIP. Where transit, and where not transit. Where are all their luggage. Which aircraft are covered with anti-icing fluid, and which are only being trained. We have not seen all this. We did not have the opportunity to change the timetable. This is already a matter of the past, but I can say that then I spent 56 hours without sleep. We understood the wretchedness of our systems. They were completely not technological. We did not have the technology of management in a crisis situation. When that three-day chaos ended, we immediately recovered. But then we were not ready for such a collapse. This was our fault, and other factors also significantly interfered. It became clear that we could solve many things more quickly if we had "eyes" and "ears". We went and looked at how all this is arranged in the "Air France". My colleagues looked at how this is done in the "Lufthansa". We were interested in the device of their situation centers and what decisions they take in different situations.

Exploring the past, we understood that during the collapse did everything right, but even a day later. Lacking resources, we simply do not have time. Operated intuitively. We redraw the schedule right in pencil on the board.

Today, the situation center, we have all the necessary resources. You can easily rewrite the schedule on a huge board-plate. You see all the passengers, all aircraft. Because of this, it is possible to quickly make adjustments. The situation center has a room for the deputies and the government, have a press center. Everything is close and everything is open.

As for that winter collapse, Western companies and services were then asked to share their experience. They wrote to me: "Vitaly, share how you managed to work during the icy rain?" We shared something. But we could not tell everything, as not everyone will understand how the Russians work in extreme conditions. They had such questions because there during the icy rain the airports are just closing. We do not allow this to be done by law. Even with a new situation center, I have no right to cancel flights. We wrote a lot about this and applied to various instances. However, some believe that this is an infringement of the rights of passengers. The whole west, America have the right to cancel flights. We have no such opportunity.

            For example, what happened this winter. 29-30 December, I saw that the flights had gone astray. Aircraft must fly in a single turn. They fly in, pick up passengers and fly away. I saw 60% of the park spend the night here in Moscow. We doused them with liquids, but they were still covered with ice. And so two days of sheer insanity. In Europe, I could just cancel flights, and return the money to passengers. But by law we could not do it. And if tomorrow there will be something similar, we will again be hostages of the situation. 

General Director of JSCaeroflot - Russian airlines ”Savelyev Vitaly Gennadyevich.

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