S7 Warns Transferring Booking Servers To Russia May Halt Work Of National Carriers-Reports

The S7 carrier has said that the Russian Transport Ministry's new requirements to the booking systems providers may lead to the situation, where Russian airlines would be unable to continue their activities, media reported on Monday, citing the letter by S7 CEO Vladimir Obyedkov to the Russian Association of Air Transport Operators

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd October, 2018) The S7 carrier has said that the Russian Transport Ministry's new requirements to the booking systems providers may lead to the situation, where Russian airlines would be unable to continue their activities, media reported on Monday, citing the letter by S7 CEO Vladimir Obyedkov to the Russian Association of Air Transport Operators.

The new booking requirements by the Russian Transport Ministry, which are to take effect on January 1, 2020, will require servers of air booking providers to be localized in Russia.

According to the Russian Vedomosti newspaper, three largest national carriers � Aeroflot, S7 and Ural Airlines � are currently working with foreign providers that would not want to move their servers to Russia due to high costs.

At the same time, Russia's Sirena travel provider does not meet the requirements of large air carriers, as it is unable to perform operations related to the joint alliances, the media outlet added.

In late June, Russia's Aeroflot and S7 faced difficulties while registering passengers due to a glitch in the work of the SITA IT company that provides IT services to air carriers. The incident prompted the Russian Transport Ministry to address the issues of optimizing the policies regulating online booking systems.