date=1/13/95
type=background report
number=5-19296
title=East Euro Airlines
byline=Barry Wood
dateline=Prague
content=
voiced at:
Intro: Eastern Europe's state-owned airlines are engaged in a
fierce competitive battle as they go head-to-head for business
with the much richer and bigger airlines of Western Europe.
V-o-A's Barry Wood reports on the survival strategies of East
Europe's airlines.
Text: Visit an airport in an Eastern European capital and you
will see rows of used Soviet-built airliners waiting to be sold.
At Prague's Ruzyne airport six long-range Ilyushin 62m's stand
forlornly on the tarmac, unsold after being withdrawn from
service last year.
The first thing Eastern European airlines did after the collapse
of communism was to withdraw their Soviet aircraft from routes to
the west. Western passengers resisted flying on the noisy,
uncomfortable Soviet planes and the companies complained that
their Soviet equipment burned twice as much fuel as western
planes. Today, all Eastern European airlines have at least some
western aircraft.
But despite new equipment, the airlines are still losing money.
They are, in the words of airline analysts, too small, too poor,
and too fragile to succeed in one of the world's most competitive
industries. The eastern carriers have sought partnerships with
stronger western air carriers.
Lot, the Polish state airline, and the region's largest carrier,
has just concluded a cooperative arrangement with American
Airlines. Malev, of Hungary, cooperates with Delta Airlines and
has sold almost one-third of its shares to the Italian state
carrier, Alitalia.
Tarom of Romania, Balkan of Bulgaria, and C-S-A of the Czech
Republic have no western partners. Although C-S-A had a
disastrous relationship with Air France that ended a year ago
when the Czech government angrily bought back Air France's 20
percent share in C-S-A.
Antonin Jakubse is the chief executive officer of C-S-A. He
believes the Czech Airline can survive without a foreign partner.
Mr. Jakubse, C-S-A chairman for just over one year, says most of
his company's problems are internal.
/// Jakubse act ///
First of all, we have to provide our staff with good
training, to explain and persuade them that the only way
to survive is to provide very good service. Service
that is competitive and comparable with Lufthansa,
K-L-M, American Airlines, and British Airways.
// End act //
Mr. Jakubse says training people to smile, to be friendly, and
helpful is not easy since for 40 years communism had the effect
of making people very rude even to one another.
C-S-A, like Malev and the company, Lot, continues to lose money.
But the losses narrowed in 1994 and will fall further this year
as uneconomic routes are abandoned. C-S-A sees its future as a
small carrier, capitalizing on the Czech Republic's tourist and
business potential and serving the short to medium haul European
market. Mr. Jakubse believes C-S-A will eventually be fully
privatized. Currently, the Czech government owns about 60
percent of the airline's shares. (Signed)
neb/bdw/skh/jwh
13-Jan-95 12:25 pm est (1725 utc)
nnnn
source: Voice of America
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A tovabbterjesztest a New York-i szekhelyu Magyar Emberi Jogok
Alapitvany tamogatja.
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Reposting is supported by Hungarian Human Rights Foundation News
and Information Service.
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DATE=1995-JAN-13
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