The general manager of Aeroflot Ireland, Mr Boris Krivchenko, has denied that the Russian airline has any plans to curtail its use of Shannon Airport beyond making an operational change whereby the Moscow-Washington service will no longer stop there after January 16th. The main cutbacks by Aeroflot had been made in 1994, he said.
Speaking from his home in Limerick, Mr Krivchenko said that Aeroflot had been gradually reducing its transatlantic stopovers at all airports. These had been cut from 2,500 at Shannon in 1994 to less than 600 last year.
This, he said, was due to the replacement of 25 medium-range Russian aircraft by a fleet of 10 European-built Airbus 310 jets, two Boeing 767 and six long-range Ilyushin aircraft. "There is no question that Shannon will be abandoned by Aeroflot, but who knows what will happen in a year, two years or three? If there are full loads out of Moscow, there should be no need to land at Shannon. This is the same thing that happened with the American carriers up to 10 years ago, but Shannon continues to thrive."
Only commercial considerations would keep Aeroflot at Shannon, he said, and the airline was having ongoing discussions with Aer Rianta on matters related to this.
Aeroflot was continuing to operate through Shannon to Miami three times a week, Mr Krivchenko said. Two new services from Moscow to Havana, with stopovers at Shannon, were also planned.
Mr Krivchenko pointed out that Aeroflot was having to buy its aviation fuel on the open market after the discontinuation of the direct supply of Russian fuel to Shannon. This had pushed up Aeroflot's costs, since aviation fuel at Shannon cost $250 (£166) a tonne compared to $180 (£120) a tonne in Moscow.
Mr Sergey Pavlovich, the general manager of Belavia, which operates a service out of Minsk to link with two Aer Lingus flights each week, said that his company would be continuing to use Shannon.
Air Ukraine has between three and five flights a week to New York from Shannon.
A spokesman for Aer Rianta said that it had been aware for some years of the cutback in services by Aeroflot and had been making arrangements to diversify. He conceded that any collapse in the Aeroflot business would be serious, but said that there was no indication of this occurring at present.