The press officers of Ural Airlines dealt with their clients’ most frequently asked questions on March 15, 2007. A lot of questions had to with the possibility of renovating Koltsovo airport without inconveniencing the passengers.

‘Back in the 80s, the airport used to service twice as many passengers even though it had neither the second international terminal nor the check-in zones 5 and 6. It somehow managed to operate efficiently. The airport could invest time, efforts, and money in improving passenger service rather than in making life difficult for a more successful rival,’ the press officers said.

Quite a few customers were wondering why a Moscow-bound flight offered by Ural Airlines transferred 300 people on average whereas such a flight offered by Aviaprad only hosted 50 passengers. ‘There are five Yekaterinburg-Moscow flights at the moment: one offered by Aeroflot, one offered by Transaero, one offered by Ural Airlines, and two offered by Aviaprad. The Ural Airlines flight enjoys the greatest demand because of convenient departure time, cheap economy class tickets (the least expensive ones come to 2,500 RUR for a single ticket), and IL 86 used for the flight,’ the carrier explained.

‘The Ural customers prefer IL 86 due to its comfortable sitting arrangements and reliability. By the way, the attractively cheap tickets are actually related to the type of the plane used. IL 86 allows us to offer more inexpensive tickets (up to 100 tickets per flight). Our researches as well as our long-term experience have shown that the three popularity factors (suitable timetable, cheapness, and type of plane) are most effective when combined. If a carrier only takes advantage of one of the components of the scheme, no financial success is guaranteed. Aviaprad, for example, introduced two Moscow-bound flights whose departure time is close to that of Ural Airlines’ flight. Yet the timetable alone was not enough, so they still haven’t been able to get more than 50 passengers per flight.’