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- Delivery without food: Pulkovo passengers may face flight delays and lack of flight board
Delivery without food: Pulkovo passengers may face flight delays and lack of flight board
Passengers at Pulkovo Airport may face flight delays and lack of food on planes from May 18. His management was warned about this by airlines operating flights from St. Petersburg. The new inspection rules do not leave it possible to deliver the onboard food of all suppliers who worked with the carriers to the aircraft, they noted. The catering company Transpit North-West reported that they had contacted the airport management with suggestions for an early resolution of this issue. Pulkovo noted that they had warned all their partners in advance about the new aviation safety rules. At the same time, there were flight delays due to non-fulfillment of obligations by one of the suppliers. The FAS also told Izvestia that they had identified signs of violation of antimonopoly legislation in the actions of the airport operator, the Northern Capital Air Gate.
Will Pulkovo passengers face a shortage of on-board meals
Starting from May 18, some passengers departing from St. Petersburg Pulkovo Airport may face flight delays or go on a flight without on-board meals. Airlines operating flights to St. Petersburg have warned the airport management about this (Northern Capital Air Gate LLC, VVSS, operator Pulkovo) - Izvestia has read their appeals.
Pulkovo Airport in Saint Petersburg
We are talking about airline clients of catering companies that supply food to passengers (among them, the authors of the letters indicate Transpit North-West LLC).
The reason for the carriers' concern was the changes by the airport management in the location and technology of on-board food inspection, delivered to Pulkovo since May 18, follows from this correspondence. It will become virtually impossible to get and load them on board, they fear.
As the press service of the Northern Capital Air Gate company noted to Izvestia, on March 1, the rules "Aviation Security Requirements for airports" ceased to apply, and instead, the rules of inspection in order to ensure transport security came into force on the same date.
— Since the new rules prohibit the inspection of on-board stocks outside the transport security zone of the transport infrastructure facility, the Air Force was forced to notify Transpit North-West of the termination of the inspection of on-board stocks outside this zone. At the same time, food inspection remains possible at the existing airport checkpoints," the airline noted.
On-board catering suppliers were notified about upcoming changes in the field of legislation regulating transport safety back in 2024, Pulkovo added. According to the agreement, Transpit North-West was warned two months in advance about the termination of stock inspection outside the airport's transport security zone. There was also an airline notification on the supplier's side.
— For its part, the Air Force additionally notified the airlines during the meeting on April 10, 2025. The overwhelming majority of carriers have confirmed that the changes in legislation will not affect the maintenance of their flights, the airport's press service says.
At the same time, they acknowledged that "given the significant volume of on-board meals and other on-board supplies delivered daily to aircraft in Pulkovo, the Air Force assumes that from May 18 there may be delays in individual flights or other disruptions in aircraft maintenance due to non-fulfillment of obligations by Transpit North-West LLC".
Loading of AeroMar's on-board meals into a Rossiya Airline plane at Pulkovo Airport
— The supplier Aeromar LLC complies with the new legal requirements, whose workshop is located on the border of the controlled territory of the airport and is equipped with the necessary inspection equipment. For its part, the company confirms the possibility of providing onboard power to the existing volume of shipments," the Pulkovo press service added.
However, some carriers disagree with the arguments of the airport. In particular, Yamal reported in its letter to the management of the air hub that the capacities of the Aeromar catering company operating in Pulkovo (part of Aeroflot) may not be enough, therefore flight delays are not excluded.
Ural Airlines also warned about possible flight delays due to the inability to load the onboard equipment of the previously selected supplier on time. According to her representative, the only remaining food supplier at the airport does not have sufficient capacity to produce the necessary amounts of food. In addition, the carrier has not yet received from Aeromar the necessary calculations with transparent prices, and this "jeopardizes the provision of flights with on-board meals for the airline as a whole."
Fly Dubai has notified the airport management that if the Air Force management does not have a solution for on-board food inspection provided by a previously selected supplier, they will be forced to switch to loading it on return flights (operated from Pulkovo) from the base airport, since Aeromar currently does not have a Halal certificate. The selection of a new supplier requires detailed inspections and time-consuming corporate procedures, according to the airline's materials.
The Federal Air Transport Agency recommended that Izvestia contact the press services of Aeroflot and Pulkovo. The editorial board also sent a request to the Ministry of Transport.
Transpit North-West confirmed the existence of problems. According to its founder Oleg Ermakov, the cancellation in March of the Russian Federation of the federal aviation regulations "Aviation Safety Requirements for airports" was known in advance and Transpit appealed to the airport management with proposals for an early resolution of the issue. Until now, the flight equipment produced by Transpit has been inspected directly in the workshop outside the airport, and then transported to a "clean" area with all precautions. But in the spring, the rules changed — the inspection should take place at the checkpoints located at the entrance.
According to him, one of the two checkpoints recommended by the airport does not have the necessary equipment for inspection, and the second one is open specifically for the Aeromar and does not intend to let competitors through it.
Aeromar recommended that Izvestia address questions to representatives of Pulkovo.
Aeroflot noted that the implementation of the checkpoint regime is within the competence of the aviation security service of Pulkovo Airport, and the catering company does not influence this process.
—Aeromar fully fulfills its obligations to airlines under the concluded contracts for the supply of on—board meals," Aeroflot added.
How much does a meal cost on a plane
In general, the situation when an airport supports a particular supplier of flight equipment is not new for Russia, said one of the participants in the aviation infrastructure market. He recalled that several years ago, the Irkutsk department of the Federal Antimonopoly Service initiated a case against Irkutsk International Airport related to infringement of the interests of one and suppliers of stocks. But involving antimonopoly authorities in such proceedings is not always effective: the case will be investigated for a long time, the violator of the law will receive a penny fine, and the company that monopolized access to the local flight catering market will earn a good profit during this time, the Izvestia interlocutor argues.
According to him, most airports in Russia provide airlines with food by internal structures, preventing competitors from doing so: until recently, Pulkovo was distinguished by the diversity and competition of such suppliers.
Trolleys for on-board meals
— The flight board is about 1.5% of the ticket price. But since competition in the air transportation market is extremely high, even a slight increase in this cost can affect the financial performance of companies: fluctuations in demand for tickets lead to a change in their price even by 100-200 rubles, — says the interlocutor of Izvestia.
Oleg Panteleev, Executive Director of the Aviport agency, considers the situation in Pulkovo to be atypical. Such practices are not very common now, but there have been a lot of such conflicts in the past decade, he notes.
— As a rule, airport operators, citing security reasons or even without referring to anything, blocked access to the supply of flight food to structures that are not their subsidiaries. But the situation has changed — the structures of the Federal Antimonopoly Service began to react quickly to such manifestations, he claims.
If there is a serious suspicion of restricting competition, the intervention of the FAS can be quite harsh, Oleg Panteleev believes.
The FAS told Izvestia that the St. Petersburg Department of the service had received an appeal from Transpit North-West. The company reported that the main operator of Pulkovo limited the organization's pre-flight inspection of food.
— The agency has established that on-board meals at the airport are supplied by two companies — Transpit North-West and Aeromar. Currently, at the airport, it is possible to carry out a pre-flight inspection of on-board food at a certain checkpoint, where only Aeromar operates. According to current legislation, on—board meals that have not passed pre-flight inspection cannot be delivered on board," the FAS noted.
They said that following the review of the appeal of Transpit North-West, the territorial administration of the service revealed signs of violation of antimonopoly legislation in the actions of the Northern Capital Air Gate.
The FAS also explained to Izvestia that a warning had been issued to the airport — if it does not eliminate the violation by May 26, an antimonopoly case may be initiated against it, following which the fine will be calculated based on the requirements of the Administrative Code.
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