"Fewer flights – less money"
Rossiya Airlines (a subsidiary of Aeroflot) has decided to close the flight attendant department in Yekaterinburg, which employed about 80 people. This was reported by the Aviatorshchina Telegram channel, the information was confirmed in the press service of Rossiya. Get rid of flight attendants not only in Yekaterinburg. As an Aeroflot employee told The Insider, there are no official mass layoffs in the flight attendant department. However, there is incentive to quit.
“Now Aeroflot has received money from the state and offers employees from 100 to 200 thousand rubles, depending on the length of service (10 years or more), to write an application of their own free will for retirement. Checks on the work of flight attendants have become more frequent: filling out documentation, appearance, monitoring the balance of inventory items after the flight.
According to the interlocutor, the Department of Onboard Services was restructured: out of 11 mixed departments, two departments of flight attendants were made for business class, four for economy.
“Many bosses and their deputies in the departments lost their jobs and, as far as I know, they were fired, not laid off,” says the airline employee. — Many employees were sent on additional leave. Aviation is experiencing a second crisis in recent times, and in terms of personnel it will do the same as last time. Many people, having lost in finances, will leave on their own, someone will be pushed to this. I think that layoffs will peak at the end of autumn, when the holiday season ends and flight hours decrease. When, or rather, if the situation with flights begins to improve, Aeroflot will begin to recruit staff again and partially take on former employees who wished to return, as was the case during the post-Covid thaw. The factors of the crisis are obvious: sanctions, closed skies, fewer flights, less money. For the parking of those aircraft that are in conservation, you have to pay a lot of money.
“The peak of layoffs will be at the end of autumn, when the vacation season ends and flight hours decrease”
According to an Aeroflot employee, "the mood of employees now has a whole palette of shades of mood." Some believe that “even if everyone drowns, the state will save Aeroflot”, there are those who have been constantly reading the news since the beginning of the war and are constantly in a panic, there are those who have sunk deep into professional burnout and no longer expect anything good.
“The hardest thing is for those who have mortgages or rented housing,” the source said. – Flight attendants live on a progressive pay scale with a meager salary. Reducing the flight time in 20-30 hours hits hard on the pocket. The situation is saved only by the recent salary indexation, which the company undertook at the end of 2021 due to a significant outflow of flight attendants in airlines with higher wages. Many colleagues, in view of recent events, are considering not only dismissal, but also moving out of the country. There can be no pluralism of opinions in the company, and even in the state. Everyone who disagrees with the special operation is pointed to the door.”
“Everyone who disagrees with the special operation is pointed to the door. Many think about leaving the country.”
In addition, the source says, the head of the Ministry of Transport, Vitaly Savelyev, has long been trying to push through the abolition of the allowance for harmful working conditions from flight attendants. Now this story has another twist. “If the harmfulness is canceled, a lot of people will run out of the company, this is the only thing that has kept many in the airlines in recent years.”
What to fly
Aeroflot has a difficult situation with the fleet itself. According to the interlocutor, the Russians will have to fly on what is left in the fleet of foreign aircraft, however, how they will be serviced is an open question to which no one knows the answer, since spare parts are no longer supplied to Russia. In addition, Aeroflot has extensive experience in operating the Sukhoi Superjet, but these aircraft are significantly inferior to their foreign counterparts: they break down more often and consume more fuel.
“Dry” was handed over to Rossiya Airlines, the state is still paying compensation to its operators. MS-21 also requires import substitution and has not yet entered mass production, there is nothing to say about the rest of the aircraft, there are only talks, when it comes down to it, it may take five and 10 years. In addition, regarding the production of long-haul aircraft, the Boeing 777, Airbus A330 and A350 have no competition.”
However, the authorities promise otherwise. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said in June that airlines would receive 1,000 domestic aircraft by 2030. According to him, 770 billion rubles will be allocated for these purposes in the next seven years. About 140 SSJ New aircraft, 270 MS-21-310 aircraft, 70 Il-114-300 and Tu-214 aircraft are to be built. He also signed the corresponding order .
As an aviation expert, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Insider, the plan is completely unrealistic.
“Over the past 15 years, not a single promise of the authorities and aircraft manufacturers has been fulfilled accurately and on time. The promise to make 70 and 50 superjets a month has not been fulfilled. The promise to do 20 … 30 … 50 MS-21 has not been fulfilled. The promise to make 60% of superjets for export and 40% for the domestic market has not been fulfilled. The promise to make a family based on the superjet has not been fulfilled. The deadlines for launching the MS-21 for certification and operation have not been met. According to the ShDMS project <wide-body long-haul aircraft, project CR929 – The Insider>, which we are doing together with China, all deadlines have been missed. In 2021, the first flight should have already taken place, as a result, the aircraft is not something that is not yet in iron, even large components have not yet begun to be assembled. 1000 aircraft until 2030 under the sanctions in the Russian Federation is something from the realm of fantasy.”