The summer tourist season began with a flight delay for travelers wishing to go from Yekaterinburg to Antalya. Koltsovo airport has already put off Turkey-bound flights twice within the last ten days: it refused to give the carrier its slots on April 14, 2007 and claimed it couldn’t service so many passengers at the time on April 21, 2007.

Before long, Ural Airlines (the disadvantaged carrier and the region’s leading airline) sent some letters to Rosaviation and Rostourism suggesting that airports be made accountable for chartered flights delay. Immediately Rosaviation ordered Koltsovo airport to deal with Ural Airlines flights in the summer of 2007 in accordance with the so-called historic slot parameters that the carrier used a year earlier. However, this did not prevent Ural travelers from the airport’s abuse of power on April 21, 2007.

‘The current policies of this Yekaterinburg-based airport undermine the reputation of Russian aviation on the whole. Koltsovo airport would become a great air hub long ago if it focused on improvement rather than making life difficult for carriers,’ claims Ural Airlines Commercial Director Kirill Skuratov, who has already apologized for all the inconveniences the passengers experienced.

According to Mr. Skuratov, the carrier is trying to compensate the flight delay by offering large discounts on one of their flights to Turkey. Beginning from April 23, 2007 a ticket for Yekaterinburg-Istanbul-Yekaterinburg flight is available at only ?239. People who haven’t chosen a place to go to for the May recess yet might want to take advantage of the offer and buy the tickets in any of the company’s booking offices in Yekaterinburg and save their time and money.

Ural Airlines apologized for Koltsovo’s actions and thanked its customers for staying loyal to the carrier.