RUSSIA FIGHTING BACK EU SOON TO PUSS OUT

[747FOCAL]

Russia Hits Back at EU With Flight Reductions . .The Wall Street Journal 03/26/02 . .author: Guy Chazan . .(Copyright (c) 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) . .. .MOSCOW -- Russia has retaliated against an EU law banning noisy Russian airliners from European skies by cutting European airlines' flights to its cities, in what could be the opening shots of an air war.. .. .Scandinavian carrier SAS says it received a letter two weeks ago from Russia's civil-aviation authorities reducing the number of round-trip flights it operates between Copenhagen and St. Petersburg to four from five, and between Stockholm and St. Petersburg to five from seven. Finnair's Helsinki-Moscow flights are to be reduced to seven from nine, and its Helsinki-St. Petersburg flights reduced to six from eight. KLM also said Moscow had threatened to cut its routes to Russia unless a "satisfactory solution" was found to the noise issue.. .. .The cuts were imposed as Russia continued to lobby hard against a European Union directive on aircraft engine noise, due to come into force next Monday, which Russia says will devastate its travel industry. The directive enforces tough new International Civil Aviation Organization, or ICAO, standards that will affect more than two-thirds of Russia's passenger airliners.. .. .Most of the 1,600 airliners flying in Russia today are aging Soviet-era Tupolevs and Ilyushins that are much louder than their Western equivalents. Some airlines, like the national carrier Aeroflot, have bought newer, quieter Boeings and Airbuses and "hush-kitted" their older Russian craft to reduce engine noise.. .. .But modernizing a single three-engine plane can cost as much as 170,000 ($150,000), money most smaller airlines don't have. Instead, they rely on planes such as the Ilyushin Il-86, a wide-bodied jet that is one of the workhorses of the Russian fleet but doesn't comply with the ICAO regulations. The Il-86, which is chartered by dozens of tour operators ferrying Russians to holiday resorts in Spain, Italy and Greece, will be grounded by the EU ban.. .. .Half the estimated 350,000 Russian tourists expected in Spain this summer and 40% of those bound for Italy and Greece would be forced to stay at home as a result of the ban, according to Pavel Klark, head of Russia's air-tourism association.. .. .A spokesman for the Russian civil aviation authority refused to comment while talks with the EU are continuing. But Deputy Transport Minister Pavel Rozhkov confirmed that Russia would retaliate. "Obviously it would be better not to unleash an air war ... but we are capable of answering these restrictions with our own," he told Russian state television.. .. .Russia's deputy prime minister, Viktor Khristenko, flew to Brussels on Monday for talks with Chris Patten, the EU foreign-affairs commissioner, with the flight ban high on their agenda. But talks already held with the European Commission, European civil-aviation authorities and individual countries such as Spain, Italy, Germany and France had failed to yield "any substantial progress so far," Russian Tourism Minister Vladimir Strzhalkovsky said on Monday.. .. .The changes to SAS's flight schedule, which take effect Sunday, would severely disrupt the airline's business, said Anna Gillstrom, SAS's director of government and external relations. "Tickets have already been sold" on the canceled routes, she said. The airline has asked the Swedish authorities to take up the issue with the Russian government, she added. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="biggrin.gif" /> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="biggrin.gif" /> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

[Otterman]

Very heroic of the Russian to pick on the smallest countries of the EU. Not impressed.

[747FOCAL]

Oh come on. Any one EU country has more money than Russia. Plus infastructure, stable government, etc. People gripin about airplane noise..... Airplanes make noise, a lot of noise in some cases(Concorde). Airplane noise means one thing to me.....the economy must be good, stable and making money...so what if I have to hear it all the time. The world is spending an azz load of money to lower aircraft noise. Yes in the last 20 years we have greatly reduced it, but we have hit a technological wall....airplanes aren't getting much quieter generation to generation. Expecting them to be silent one day is absurd. the money could be better spent elsewhere. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Mad]" src="mad.gif" />

[Otterman]

We are not talking the outer edges of science here. Just getting rid of those old soviet fuel to noise converter death traps that are generations behind what the west has to offer, even on the used market. The point is that the Russians are showing their weakness by taking on the minnows and not going after the countries that actually have some influence in the EU. Cowardly.

[Tolsti]

looks like they got some concessions though.. .. .from the Moscow Timeswww.themoscowtimes.com). .. .By Lyuba Pronina . .Staff Writer . .. .With just four days left before the European Union imposes a ban on noisy Russian airplanes, Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko said Wednesday that he had won a nine-month reprieve on flights to Greece, Belgium, Holland and the Scandinavian countries.. .. ."I have received a full pledge from the leadership of the European Commission that we can relieve the situation for this year," Khristenko said on RTR television Wednesday night. . .. .Khristenko was speaking during 11th-hour negotiations in Brussels. . .. .Details about the concessions were not immediately available.