Belavia airline, expanding cooperation with JSC TKP (Transport Clearing House, TCH), joined the Multilateral Agreement M2. The project was launched on April 1, the press service of the carrier said.
Now all accredited agencies have access to the resource of the airline seats, which will increase the load of Belavia flights and the volume of transfer traffic through Minsk, provide passengers with additional advantages when buying tickets and traveling.
As the executive body of the Air Transport Settlement System (ATSS) TCH solves the problem of sales network organization of air transportation and other additional services of carriers – participants of ATSS. Also the cooperation with TCH gives the airlines a tool to make more effective complex routes with the involvement of other air carriers and execution of a single carriage for the whole route.
Such opportunity provides the use of TKP technology in the framework of M2 agreement and is of interest both for travel agencies and passengers, for whom the availability of agreements on M2 agreement allows to purchase a single transportation to flights of different airlines at optimal fares and not to worry about connections.
The traditional way of organizing joint air travel is through direct interline agreements with partners, but it is a complicated process that requires airlines to spend time and money to implement it in reservation systems. The M2 agreement allows for the sale of transfer traffic involving several airlines without significant investment and labor costs.
At the moment 84 scheduled airlines are the participants of the ATSS. “Belavia uses agreements with TCH and other airlines under the M2 agreement for passenger transportation via Vnukovo, Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo, Pulkovo airports, as well as airports in Yekaterinburg and Kazan. Minsk is one of the first places outside of Russia, where the technology will be available – M2 was previously launched in late February in Astana and Almaty.
“Under the current conditions, when airlines in Belarus are facing serious restrictions, it is a very important task to attract additional passengers and restore transfer flows through Minsk airport,” said Vladimir Barkun, Deputy General Director for Marketing and Foreign Economic Affairs at Belavia Airlines. – Russian airlines are actively opening new flights to Minsk from the regions of the Russian Federation, and, of course, Belavia is interested in cooperation with colleagues from Russia and other countries.
New arrangements will serve the development of Minsk as an air transfer hub and will allow passengers to arrange uniform transportation at affordable prices for Belavia and all Russian airlines flying to Minsk. Belarusian carrier is ready to cooperate under M2 agreement with any airlines flying to Minsk in order to develop transfer and increase the attractiveness of the airport. We also expect that this technology will soon be available in the airports of the CIS and other countries.
At the first stage Nordwind, Severstal and Red Wings airlines joined M2 Minsk. These carriers will fly from five Russian cities: Perm, Ufa, Nizhny Novgorod, Cherepovets and Kaluga. Thanks to cooperation with Belavia within M2, it is possible to connect their flights via Minsk with cities of Belavia route network.
