New York Times - 08.06.2004

New York Times

CORRESPONDENT'S REPORT

Aeroflot Tries to Polish a Problematic Image

By STEVEN LEE MYERS

MOSCOW 

AEROFLOT, the national airline of the Soviet Union and now Russia, has long been cast as a metaphor for the country. 

The airline, founded in 1923, became a symbol of progress under Soviet rule, then of Brezhnev-era stagnation. After the Soviet Union collapsed, it represented the promise of capitalism in a new Russia, then the souring of that hope in the chaotic 1990's, which nearly bankrupted the country and the airline.

Now Aeroflot is mounting an aggressive campaign to polish its image at home and abroad, even as it struggles to overcome the legacies of its sclerotic past.

The airline - still controlled by the Russian government and still displaying its Soviet-era hammer-and-sickle logo despite a new exterior design - is in the middle of its most significant retooling since it shed its vast monopoly in 1992, spinning off scores of smaller regional airlines while retaining the core international routes. 

After cutting unprofitable routes, beginning a redesign of its fleet - now made up of Boeing and Airbus jets as well as Russian-made Tupolevs and Ilyushins - and introducing amenities like new seats and improved menus to cater to business travelers in Europe and the United States, Aeroflot is undertaking its greatest challenge yet: to shake off its reputation among beleaguered passengers as the airline of last resort. 

Aeroflot is gradually introducing upgraded service to include meals that include "fusion" menus of European and Russian cuisine, prepared fresh onboard and ordered à la carte. And flight attendants will be trained, as Evgeny V. Bachurin, Aeroflot's commercial director, put it, "to behave better." Anyone who has experienced the worst of Aeroflot's scowling, indifferent service knows it will not be an easy transition.

"It requires extensive training," Mr. Bachurin said in an interview in the company's nondescript offices in the Aerostar Hotel in Moscow.

The new service - imposed in a training program called Care - has now been included on flights to Tokyo and Los Angeles and will become the standard for all flights, domestic and international, by next year. The training is designed to teach employees such basic concepts as treating customers well - still a novelty in Russia, where service anywhere rarely comes with a smile.

There are plans to expand the training to ground staff, too, especially at Aeroflot's hub at Sheremetyevo Airport, which is notoriously chaotic and unfriendly. And to attract more Americans, the airline has also opened offices in New York and Los Angeles that will sell tickets and administer its frequent-flier program. 

The ultimate goal is to join the SkyTeam Alliance, the network that includes Delta, Alitalia, Air France, CSA Czech Airlines, Aeroméxico and Korean Air. In May, Aeroflot signed a preliminary accord with Air France clearing the way for membership once it meets standards in areas including customer service and airport operations.

For Aeroflot, membership in the alliance could open major new markets, especially in the United States, which accounts for only 5 percent of its passengers. The partnership would allow travelers to transfer to the airline's routes inside and outside Russia, to travel on a single ticket using two or more of the member airlines and to collect bonus miles for use on any of them.

It would also demonstrate the airline's progress in turning itself around. From 1991 to 1995, for example, Delta had a code-sharing agreement with Aeroflot, only to cancel it because of the tumult surrounding the airline and Russia generally.

Todd Clay, a Delta spokesman, said that while representatives of the airlines must still sign off on its standards, Aeroflot was on track to join the alliance by the end of next year. "It's not just talk," he said of Aeroflot's efforts. 

But Aeroflot still faces formidable obstacles. Although it is no longer a state monopoly, the Russian government still owns a 51 percent share. And while Aeroflot has shed Soviet-era mandates, like keeping unprofitable routes only because Moscow had embassies in the cities they served, the airline still faces government restrictions. One is a cap of 27 foreign Boeing and Airbus jets in its fleet of 97 aircraft to protect Russian airplane manufacturers, Mr. Bachurin said.

Operations at Sheremetyevo, with its separate international and domestic terminals, are also a problem. The time required to transfer to a domestic connection, which in some European airports can be less than an hour, is twice as long there. "We have to have two hours minimum, and that is often not enough," Mr. Bachurin said. There are plans to build a third terminal that could combine international and domestic traffic, but it will take years to complete. 

Aeroflot's reputation also suffered from its past safety record, which included numerous crashes in the 1990's. Notoriously, a new Airbus crashed in Siberia in 1994, killing 75 people, after a pilot put his 15-year-old son at the controls. Aeroflot's record is much improved, however, with no major accidents since then, despite an aging fleet.

Still, the airline, which lost money through the 1990's, is now profitable, earning $156 million last year. Mr. Bachurin, who at 40 is part of a new generation of businessmen, said that the airline's surveys have shown that passengers are willing to pay more for improved service and convenience.

In the company's corporate strategy (another innovation), the only reminder of the old Aeroflot will be its logo.

"We still haven't found a strong replacement for it," Mr. Bachurin said. "Eighty years of history is not something we could just drop."