Aeroflot Hopes for Clearer Skies

In a series of sweeping statements, some of his most candid remarks on an extremely difficult year, the general director of Aeroflot on Wednesday said his company has survived the worst and anticipates a better 1995.


Then he knocked on wood.


"This was not an easy year," Vladimir Tikhonov said. "I think we have overcome the most difficult period, and 1995 should be a year of stability and complete control. We will achieve better results than we have, but we had better knock wood."


The past year was an exceptionally deadly one for Russian aviation. In the first 10 months of 1994, 46 accidents killed 248 passengers and 52 crew members, according to the Transport Ministry.


But Aeroflot, the one airline sanctioned to carry that name, was only responsible for one of those crashes. In March, an Airbus A-310 killed 75 people when it plunged from the sky en route from Moscow to Hong Kong.


A final report is due early next year, but the cockpit flight recorder showed that the plane crashed while the pilot's children were playing with the controls.


The Russian flag carrier's task is daunting. To burnish the residue of a difficult few years, Aeroflot is undertaking an image-polishing program. Tikhonov announced that a fresh corps of personnel will be dispatched to the airline's international ticket offices to help bring the airline a new face.


"We understand what kind of role the foreign offices play," he said. The airline also anticipates scaling back or closing non-productive foreign representations. Tikhonov would not say which.


The new attitude may help, and some people are already noticing the difference. "They've obviously looked at a number of different Western airlines," said David Love, a spokesman for the American Society of Travel Agents. "They are taking a look at what travelers like and they are trying to adapt to that."


Aeroflot -- which flies only international routes for now -- is trying hard to have its name removed from airplanes that are using it improperly. Tikhonov said that by mutual agreement, 48 Russian domestic airlines have the right to fly with the trademark logo on their fuselage. Any other airline using the Aeroflot logo is breaking the law.


"The question of ownership of the Aeroflot name is no longer under discussion," Tikhonov said. His deputy director, Vladimir Potyomkin, said Russia should enact a law to punish newly formed airlines that haven't repainted their planes since the demise of the Soviet behemoth.


Above all, though, safety is the airline's top concern for the upcoming year. "That is priority number one without any doubt," Tikhonov said. "No one has the right to say safety is weak at Aeroflot."


There was a time when people said just that. The collapse of Soviet aviation, and what was once the world's largest airline, played havoc with air safety in Russia. There are now 396 airlines plying the Russian skies where there was once one.


Aeroflot's reputation, already suffering from its association with Soviet inefficiencies, plummeted along with the Airbus. Tikhonov said the accident hurt business, too.


Last year, the airline carried about 3.1 million passengers and 70,000 tons of cargo.


In other developments Aeroflot has:


?formed Aeroflot Cargo as a separate division of the airline.


?signed two new agreements that will strengthen the airline's hub in Shannon, Ireland.


?announced that it would lease five to seven western aircraft next year and purchase 20 new Il-96 planes.


?said it will undergo an $800 million modernization process.