On February 14, the Turkish budget airline Pegasus Airlines introduced a new tariff schedule, bringing its minimum Light fare to global trends.
Easy means easy. Previously, at the minimum fare, a cabin size suitcase (50x40x20) could be taken to the cabin of a Turkish low–cost airline without weight restriction, now only one carry-on bag weighing up to 3 kg and measuring up to 40x30x15 with its placement exclusively under the seat of the forward chair. For violation – a fine of 50 euros.
The shock of Pegasus’ innovations is comparable only, perhaps, to the news of the bankruptcy of Air Berlin in 2017. According to the Hamburg account, this German low–cost airline was a low-cost airline only in name and cost of flights – AN–Tourism flew, for example, on the Moscow – Berlin route for 50 euros – and this with luggage! The ticket price even included a light lunch on board – a sandwich and hot drinks. But the almost perfect low-cost airline Air Berlin has not been with us for a long time, and now even the tolerable tariffs of Pegasus Airlines have sunk into oblivion. The downward changes, of course, affected the entire tariff schedule of the Turkish budget airline. For example, a cabin size suitcase cannot be heavier than 8 kg.
Pegasus Airlines is unlikely to lose its popularity with Russian tourists, but the sediment, as they say, will remain.
Testing the subway to the airport
Istanbul’s two international airports are the main hubs for Russians when flying to European countries, so we drew attention to the news presented in the Turkish (and Russian) media as a grand breakthrough – the metro line (M11) from the “New” airport (IST) was connected to the M2 branch running through the center of the metropolis, and it turns out that Taksim Square in the heart of Istanbul can now be reached in 50 minutes with one transfer. What exactly is the breakthrough? It was possible to get from the new airport to Taksim earlier, but with two transfers. And now with one. So propagandists and PR people are the same everywhere, but the news deserves at least attention.
Independent travelers have already tested the new route and talked about the pros and cons. Positive: new carriages and the cost of the trip is 35 liras, but you need an Istanbul Card (an analogue of the Troika card). For comparison: A taxi on this route costs around 700 lira, an express bus costs about 200. Cons: the metro is very far from the airport terminal. You will have to go through long travelators with suitcases. The station is very deep. We will have to change two elevators or “a dozen” escalators. A very long walk at the Gayreteppe transfer station (10-15 minutes). Pay for the trip twice. The M11 and M2 lines are not connected by anything other than travelators. Poor navigation.
It didn’t work out, we cross it out
In the last issue (“AN” No. 6), we wrote about how picturesquely Ural Airlines postponed the launch of direct flights from Zhukovsky near Moscow to Baku – the message about the cancellation of the flight was accepted when all passengers of the first flight had already checked in and were waiting to board the plane at the airport. Last week, the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport of Azerbaijan explained that the application for approval of flights of Ural Airlines from Zhukovsky to Baku is still under consideration by the Civil Aviation Agency of Azerbaijan, and the Russian airline should remember the rules and deadlines for obtaining permission from the Government of Azerbaijan to operate regular flights, as no later than a month I received permission to fly from Yekaterinburg to Baku a year ago. Let’s translate from the language of international departmental communication into everyday language: “Why put on a show?” I remember an anecdote: “Car service. The client looks at the invoice and asks the master: “And what kind of item was “Rolled” – 10,000 rubles?” The Master: “It didn’t work out, we’re crossing it out.” It’s a bit insulting for the passengers, but how many times has AN-Tourism already said that it’s not worth taking tickets before the first flight on a new route.
And one more news from Ural Residents over the past week – the airline will issue branded birth certificates in the sky to babies born on board their planes. As you know, this case, as well as landings in the fields, has been put on stream by Ural Airlines – there are already two cases of both. The certificate will indicate the date, time, altitude, side number, row of seats and coordinates projected onto the ground so that the air-born could visit the place of his birth (if possible).
The everyday life of the national
Another case won from Aeroflot about the cancellation of cheap tickets to Phuket happened this time in Perm. Alexander and Yulia Naugolnykh bought tickets Yekaterinburg – Phuket on October 19 at the “wrong fare” – 21 510 rubles per ticket. Soon Aeroflot cancelled them, explaining the low prices as a technical error. The couple, with the assistance of Rospotrebnadzor, sued, and on January 30, the judge of the Dzerzhinsky District Court of Perm ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, demanding that Aeroflot immediately transport them using the tickets originally purchased. The carrier was also ordered to pay moral compensation of 10 thousand rubles and 5 thousand rubles fine to each passenger for violating the law. Passengers have already flown to Phuket on February 5-16.
The news is unpleasant for the national bank and may encourage other victims who bought new tickets instead of canceled ones to reconsider their decision and demand that Aeroflot return the difference in price.
Meanwhile, Aeroflot has “cleared” seven more aircraft and now has the largest fleet of airliners on which it is possible to fly abroad without the risk of arrest. But there are still vessels with double registration, the airline continues negotiations with lessors.
However, the more flights abroad, the more problems there are. It is this maxim that comes to mind after reading the news that Aeroflot passengers began to lose money during flights from Moscow to Hong Kong and Istanbul. The problem has become so widespread that flight attendants will now read out a special recommendation for passengers not to leave personal belongings, money and documents unattended.
Kaleidoscope of the results of the year
Hotel rooms in Moscow have risen in price by 16% on average by the end of 2023, according to one consulting company. The average annual occupancy rate of hotels was 73%, which is almost comparable to the indicators of the pre-pandemic period.
The average cost of a kilometer in a taxi in Russia in 2023 increased by 20%, to 35 rubles.
At the same time, if in January 2023 the average price of a kilometer in a taxi increased by 12% compared to January 2022, to 31 rubles, then in December 2023 the increase was 33%, to 41 rubles. The most expensive taxi is in Salekhard (179 rubles/km in December 2023), the cheapest is in Nazran (15 rubles/km). For comparison, the average cost of a bus ride increased by 13% in December last year, to 34 rubles.
Tea is no longer the most popular drink on Russian trains. In 2023, passengers preferred coffee more often. According to the FPC, in 2023, almost 7.6 million cups of tea were drunk on long-distance trains. Coffee did not overtake tea much – it was ordered almost 7.8 million times. At the same time, instant coffee turned out to be more popular than custard: 4.9 million versus 2.9 million cups.
Hijackers are entrepreneurs
In 2019, Russian tourists vacationed on the islands of Antigua and Barbuda. They rented a sailing and motor yacht from a foreign charter company for 30 million rubles, after which, instead of returning it to its rightful owner, they transported the vessel to the Crimea. The Russians have covered about 9 thousand kilometers. The route from the Caribbean Sea passed through the Atlantic Ocean, the Strait of Gibraltar, the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus to the Black Sea Bay. Upon arrival in Sevastopol, they made a left identification number and registered the vehicle. After that, they began to rent the yacht to tourists for sea trips.
Recently, Sevastopol customs officers noticed a suspicious vessel, and then detained it. Criminal cases have been initiated under Articles 174 and 194 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Legalization of property acquired by criminal means” and “Evasion of customs payments”).
The happiest
The British research company Institute for Quality of Life has been compiling a list of the 200 happiest cities in the world every year since 2014.
The rating is based on the analysis of objective information, open data and interviews conducted with residents, i.e. quantitative research. Cities are evaluated in 24 different areas of activity, divided into five key categories: citizens, governance, environment, economy and mobility.
The final rating is divided into three categories: “golden cities” (from 1st to 23rd), “silver cities” (from 24th to 100th), “bronze cities” (from 101st to 200th).
The top 10 “lucky” cities look like this:
1. Aarhus (Denmark).
2. Amsterdam (Netherlands).
3. Bergen (Norway).
4. Brisbane (Australia).
5. Canberra (Australia).
6. Eskilstuna (Sweden).
7. Geneva (Switzerland).
8. Helsinki (Finland).
9. Jenkoping (Sweden).
10. London (Great Britain).
Two Russian cities are on the list of “bronze cities”: Moscow is on the 134th place, St. Petersburg is on the 173rd.
Invitation to partnership – t.me/snn1964
Источник: argumenti.ru
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