Tunisia: Threat Of Excess of Flights

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   Companies which specialize in Tunisian market have been negotiating charter programs for summer 2006. Three charter alliances – CAPITAL TOUR & Transaero, Megapolus Aviacharter & Atlant-Soyuz, Luzniki Tour and Sibir - have already announced their plans for the coming season that, according to experts, will experience even more charter flights than last year when six consolidators launched flights to Tunisia. That resulted in excess of flights to the country followed by termination of some charter programs. What will new season bring?
   Experts forecast gradual increase in demand. However, they doubt the possibility to avoid excess of flights even in case no more market players - Biblio-Globus and Pegas Touristic - join the present three alliances.
    At the moment CAPITAL TOUR and Megapolus Aviacharter try to prevent the possible catastrophic excess of flights. Thus, the heads of the companies, Inna Beltyukova and Mikhail Shamanov, said to a BANKO correspondent that they had signed protocol regarding pricing policy and regulation of flights volume. Moreover, they plan other tour operating companies that specialize in Tunisian market to by blocks from them. According to them, several preliminary agreements have been already made. Nevertheless, the mentioned above Biblio-Globus and Pegas do not reveal their intentions.
   Furthermore, Luzniki Tour experience difficulties when negotiate with potential partners. According to unaccredited source, the consolidator offers tickets within blocks on flights by Sibir for around $290–295, while CAPITAL TOUR and Aviacharter keep tariffs at the level of $270–275.