Pobeda, or How does the domestic loukoster work?

Many citizens of Russia, especially at the age of fifty, experience a certain nostalgia for the possibility of traveling around the country by plane. This type of transport was, of course, not the cheapest, but quite affordable for almost every worker, and despite the fact that the widely propagated advertising appeal to fly by Aeroflot planes did not suggest any alternative, the situation suited the population quite well. The popularity of civil aviation was high, the tickets of the necessary message at the ticket offices were not always available, but the prices for them were commensurate with salaries. Now the revival of this habit is called for the low-costers, and the leader among them in Russia is "Victory". How does this airline work?

What's the catch?

In the autumn of last year, the company Pobeda announced that anyone can fly from Moscow to almost any airport in Russia for just a ruble. True, the amount of taxes and fees, individual for each flight, was stipulated: for example, when flying to Vladikavkaz, it was 465 rubles. The case ended in a scandal when one passenger collected all receipts confirming that they paid much more money than promised in advertising. The victim defeated Victory and received one hundred thousand compensation. Nevertheless, the cost of air tickets is really low. And although it does not start from 999 rubles., But still it can be considered budgetary. Many potential passengers are even alarmed when they learn that it is possible to fly to Sochi only for 1400, they suspect some kind of dirty trick and are afraid at least that the flight can end in disaster. This is not so, the reliability of the low-costers do not save.

What is a loukoster?

These airlines attract passengers at low prices when they are willing to tolerate extremely unobtrusive service. The amount of services provided in-flight (and also before and after it) is minimal. The term comes from two English words "low" and "coast", meaning "low" and "tariff", respectively. The pioneer of this movement was Pacific Southwest Airlines, which proposed this scheme of work in the United States in the now distant 1949. By abolishing many options, almost useless with a short duration of the flight, Pacific managed to significantly reduce the cost of the ticket and as a result, dramatically increased its passenger traffic. In a sense, the Soviet "Aeroflot" could be attributed to lousskosters, however, forced. In the USSR, air transport was subsidized by the state, and therefore not much attention was paid to service issues, at least on domestic lines. The main passenger what? That's right, fly. A convenience - it's the tenth.

Security

Loucaster saves on everything, but not on security. It would seem that the first way to reduce costs is to rent or buy old aircraft, hastily repair them and begin to mercilessly exploit older aircraft. In fact, this way is completely dead-end. Older machines require more frequent repairs, replacement of units, exhausted motor resources, and many other non-expensive events. Few people know that aircraft manufacturers sell airplanes with a minimum profit and receive the basic income from the sale of spare parts during the entire life of a high-tech product. Therefore, for reasons of economy, airlines-loukosterov buy new cars and operate them no longer than four years, and then sell to other carriers, adhering to the classical manner of work. The "Victory" air fleet consists of a dozen "Boeing", serving 33 destinations, three of which are foreign (Bratislava, Mila and Cologne).

Airport

In the Soviet years already mentioned, passengers crossed the way to liners with special buses with a lot of standing places, but sometimes, in small airports, and just on foot, with a group accompanied by a pretty girl in uniform. "Garmoshek", leading from the building directly to the salon, was not, they appeared later and not everywhere. Approximately the same is now being done to reduce costs in low-cost companies, with the difference that the air harbor itself is chosen according to the principle of minimizing service prices. This explains the fact that cheap tickets are not sold in Orly or Heathrow, but at airports "on the outskirts." The waiting room here is simpler, the comfort is not enough, the passengers are sometimes taken to the airfield even before the arrival of the liner (the schedule is very tight), and they sometimes have to observe the cleaning process done by the stewardesses.

Grade

There are no "businesses" and "tourist" in the loukoster liner, all seats are considered equal. The distance for the legs is quite sufficient for a comfortable pastime, but in this case it is dictated by the safety requirements (the passenger should be able to duck in case of an abnormal situation), but not at all the extravagance of the carrier. Another issue is the possible options for the price. If the passenger certainly wants to sit near the porthole, then he will be offered to pay extra for it. Excess cargo, taken in the salon, will require an addition to the standard rate. Actually, there are a lot of options to try, there are a lot of money, there are not even hundreds of them, but thousands, and, eventually, the flight can cost about the same money as on an ordinary airline, so you should not get involved, you need to remember for what The choice was stopped by the loukoster, namely, about savings.

Food and service

In addition to water in flight, the loukoster will not be offered anything. First, the products cost money, secondly they have a mass, and even light carts also weigh something, and instead of all this you can pump kerosene into the tanks. It is not known how much the stewards' salary depends on the range of their duties, but it is quite possible that their salaries are also lower. True, we should give them due credit, everything they do, they do, and even more so. Flight attendants will help correctly and safely place hand luggage, answer all questions, give a pill of headache and, in general, can provide primary care if necessary. The passenger can take some sandwiches with him to eat, although usually people are ready to suffer, especially on short flights.

Tickets

You can issue a ticket online on the airline's website or pay in cash at the airport, but there is one nuance - they are usually not refundable. Pobeda airline was established after the Crimean events, and its "chip" was just a low price, but in Simferopol airport its planes do not sit down, which, however, corresponds to the concept of the loukost. In addition, flights are carried out in Sochi (there "Pobeda" delivered over three million passengers last year) and to other cities. Total revenue reached 11 billion rubles, the reporting period ended with a small profit (37 million rubles.), Although initially planned losses of one and a half billion. The advertising campaign "flight for the ruble" was also successful in terms of achieving popularity, its terms were used by fifteen thousand people. Every day Pobeda airline carries eight thousand passengers.

Prospects

For Russians, the principle of the operation of the loukost-airlines has obviously come to the liking, especially considering the huge distances typical for the country. Analysts reasonably expect that the popularity of air transport will grow, and prices will remain democratic, especially since fuel today is not as expensive as recently. In addition, there are still many ways of saving, not yet mastered by domestic commercial carriers. As for comfort, it is modest, but still there, and its level is comparable to the Aeroflot Soviet times. In addition, and in fact, the main thing - fly.