Anex tour airline. Mayhem from ANEX Tour and AZUR air

Since the Iron Curtain collapsed and residents of the former USSR became able to travel to anywhere in the world, the income of local airlines has increased millions of times. Despite the fact that the airline business is very expensive, more and more new airlines are appearing in Russia, which carry out both cargo and passenger transportation. Since the demand for this type of service, despite the crisis, is growing every year, the number of airlines is also increasing.

Before going on vacation or a business trip, every person tries to carefully study all the reviews about the company whose services he plans to use. After all, minor troubles during a flight can overshadow the entire subsequent vacation, and the inability to relax and rest along the way can ruin the mood before important negotiations and a business meeting. The Azur Air airline, reviews of which are generally positive, began to attract special interest starting in 2015. It was then that this Russian air carrier became part of the Anex Tourism Group tourism holding. Until this moment, the company was known under a different name - “Katekavia”.

The history of the Azur Air airline

The company began operating under this name in 2015. Known by its first name, Katekavia, it was a regional air carrier and was mainly engaged in air transportation in the Volga and Siberian federal districts. Before the changes in 2015, Azur Air, reviews of whose work we will consider in detail in our article later, was a subsidiary carrier of UTair.

Back in 2012, there was a deal to buy out a 25% stake in Katekavia by UTair. Three years later, in 2015, the remaining shares of Azur Air were completely purchased, which brought it independence. In the autumn of the same year, the legal entity was renamed.

Company fleet

At the end of 2014, all old Azur Air (at that time Katekavia) aircraft were transferred to Turukhan airline for operation. The newly created air carrier was replenished with a new fleet - it was then that the company received its first Boeing 757-200. This aircraft model currently makes up half of the Azur Air fleet. The Boeing 767-300 became the second model to make up the remainder of the company's fleet.

Judging by the information provided in the media, as of the end of 2015, the average age of the aircraft on which Azur Air made its flights was almost 18 years. At this time, in 2015, the company became part of the huge tourism holding company Anex Tourism Group. At the moment, the Azur Air airline, reviews of which we will consider further, fully works to meet the needs of this tour operator.

Representatives of the ANEX Tour PR department recently announced that by the end of the year Azur Air will begin operating new aircraft - Boeing 737-800.

Where do the flights take place?

Initially, when the company operated under the name "Katekavia", it was a regional carrier and operated flights mainly in the Volga and Siberian districts. After the air carrier became an independent company, AZUR Air received admission to international routes from the Federal Air Transport Agency to operate regular flights.

Currently, the company's fleet is based in Domodedovo. Azur Air, whose flights are regular, flies to the following countries:

• Dominican Republic.
• Spain.
• Vietnam.
• India.
• Egypt.

Quite recently, the company added another new point to its flight destinations - on April 7 this year, the first flight was made to Tunisia. The flight was carried out by a Boeing 757-200, on which 238 passengers successfully arrived from Moscow's Domodedovo to Monastir, Tunisia. They plan to soon introduce this route into regular flights.

Possibility of online registration

Like most modern airlines, in order to speed up the registration process for its customers, Azur Air has developed the ability to carry it out online. The opportunity to use this service becomes available 24 hours before departure. Access to check-in ends 3 hours before the scheduled take-off of the aircraft. In addition to the fact that this service can really save the time passengers spend at the check-in counter at the airport, it also makes it possible to choose a comfortable seat on the plane without leaving your own home or office. After completing self-check-in online, the passenger must print out his passport. Otherwise, he will not be allowed to enter the boarding gate.

Who can check in only at the airport

If a passenger plans to fly with pets or requires an escort during the flight (children without adults or people with disabilities), then it will not be possible to check in online. This procedure will need to be completed in person at the airport. In this case, remember that check-in starts 2 hours and ends 40 minutes before departure.

Also, those who plan to fly with this company should definitely note that online registration for Azur Air is only possible if the flight takes place from Russian cities. If the flight is made from foreign countries, unfortunately, it will not be possible to facilitate and speed up registration using the Internet. The official website states that the ability to check in for flights departing from foreign airports is under development.

Meals on board

The same company website provides information that, regardless of the duration of the flight, coffee, hot tea, mineral water and juices are required on board. If the flight duration does not exceed 4 hours, passengers can snack on hot sandwiches. If the flight takes about 6 hours, Azur Air offers a hot lunch.

In cases where the flight exceeds 6 hours, cold snacks are included with everything already listed. At the moment, there are no negative reviews about the food on board this airline in various forums and discussions. Based on this, we can conclude that the company complies with its stated obligations regarding meals for passengers during its flights.

Duty Free Shopping

As a bonus, passengers of this company are offered the opportunity to purchase goods from the Duty Free zone directly on board the aircraft. During the flight, flight attendants, at the request of the passenger, can familiarize him with the available assortment. This airline also offers the service of delivering goods from the Duty Free zone to the passenger seat. Before boarding the plane, you can visit the Azur Air website, follow the link provided there and order whatever you like. The goods can be picked up after boarding the plane. Judging by the reviews of passengers, this service provided on board is very convenient, since you do not need to go to Duty Free stores to purchase the necessary goods.

Company personnel

Any airline selects service personnel for its flights very carefully. Azur Air was no exception to this rule, whose flight attendants undergo several interview stages before starting work. The main requirements for candidates for this position include good health and the absence of medical contraindications to flying, knowledge of foreign languages ​​and resistance to stress. Based on the reviews, we can conclude that all the staff of this company are very polite and customer-oriented. Many people write in their reviews that in various unusual situations, for example, when a flight is delayed, Azur Air employees behave with great dignity and try in every possible way to reassure their clients.

Realizing that for a person planning to fly, it is very important which service personnel will accompany him during the flight, this airline resorted to a little trick. She created her own group on VKontakte and on her page introduces clients to her employees. The company posts photos and full information about the pilots performing the flights. Also on the social network you can find greetings from the flight attendants who work on board Azur Air. This decision really helps to increase trust in the airline, and visitors to the page feel completely comfortable flying with people they have already seen and know about.

Azur Air Airlines: reviews, rating

Since this Russian airline has been around for a relatively short time as an independent carrier, its ratings are not very high at the moment. On average, on a 5-point scale, the company ranks among its peers in the region of 2.9-3.5. The low ratings were also influenced by information published at the beginning of 2016 on the official website of the Federal Air Transport Agency. It indicated that the largest number of delayed flights belonged to the Azur Air company. Representatives of the air carrier commented on this situation and assured that they are working to resolve this problem.

By and large, it is difficult to find obvious negativity towards this company. Of course, in any job there are problems, and the field of passenger air transportation is no exception. Judging by the available reviews, most often people who have used the services of Azur Air complain about the delayed departure or late landing. But such incidents for a number of reasons, including weather conditions, are inevitable in the operation of any airline.

The second most common complaint against this Russian air carrier is the problem with the small distance between passenger seats on board Boeing aircraft. This factor depends on the configuration of the aircraft, and if a person is tall and has a long flight ahead, then the location of the most comfortable seats on board and the possibility of booking them should be checked in advance, before purchasing a ticket.

The news that Azur Air is transferring its flights to another airport had a negative impact on the opinions of Anex Tour tourists from the regions. Those who have already purchased travel packages through early booking promotions are especially outraged. The information became known from regional travel agents yesterday, September 27.

The problem is that tourists managed to buy air tickets from their cities to Moscow. The booking indicates the departure airport - Domodedovo. Customers were counting on these air gates, but recent changes have left them stumped. From now on, they will have to get to the declared aviation hub earlier and from there organize and pay for the trip to Vnukovo. This route is explained by the lack of opportunity to get to the desired airport on a budget. In September alone, they issued and accepted payments from 20 clients at one of the travel agencies, and there are many of them.

What to do?

Intermediaries do not understand how to now find a common language with their clients and explain the innovation.
Agents are outraged that a limited number of airlines operate flights to Vnukovo from the regions. If we take Sevastopol as an example, in the summer it is impossible to find a single aircraft at an adequate price. It is unlikely that tourists will want to overpay. According to a representative of the Crimean tourism business, in winter there is only one flight left to Vnukovo. Some clients specifically chose the tourism product from Anex Tour because of Domodedovo. The news about the airport change is very bad.

As representatives of the tourism product supplier Anex Tour reported, such actions are within the scope of the law. Most of the flights operated by Azur Air are charter flights. For them, changing the airport is acceptable. In turn, the travel agent can see all the changes in his own account. At any time it is possible to clarify current information on each of the applications. Documents are issued 24 hours before departure.

According to Vitaly Chernykh, a lawyer, as a rule, in contracts between a travel company and a client, it is not the airport itself that is specified, but the city of arrival and departure. A significant change in the conditions of the tour is considered to be departure, for example, not from Astrakhan, but from Kazan. Both Domodedovo and Vnukovo are capital airports. However, clients can prove in court that they were misled. If a product purchase agreement has already been drawn up, then additional losses due to a change in air hub can be claimed from the supplier. Circumstantial evidence must be presented in court. The booking number indicates the hotel, airport and flight. If the court accepts this information as exhaustive grounds for satisfying the plaintiff’s complaint, the client must pay all costs.

If you don’t want your vacation to turn into a nightmare, if you don’t like having those to whom you paid a lot of money wipe their feet... then I categorically do not advise you to contact the Anex tour company and their accomplices from Azur air.

And now for more details...

We bought a tour (Thailand, Phuket) for two for 100,000 rubles. Tour operator ANEX Tour and their pocket charter carrier AZUR air. In fact, this is one office with different signs.

When taking off at Domodedovo airport, absolute hell happened:

Messages inviting boarding from Azur Air alternated with messages about another flight delay of half an hour. Sometimes completely absurd messages were heard about the end of the landing, while the landing in fact did not even begin. With these messages, Azur Air unnerved and misled passengers. With each announcement that boarding was about to begin, passengers jumped out of their seats and lined up to exit. But then another message about the flight delay sounded and everyone sat back down.

This went on for two hours!!! When we heard another message about a flight delay, we went to Duti free and monitored the flight board on our smartphone.

We arrived 25 minutes later and found an empty room.

AZUR air employees told us that our plane had taken off. We were told that our luggage had been removed from the flight and we were expelled from the customs and border zone. At the same time, on the Domodedovo electronic board the flight was still indicated as delayed, without a departure time!!!

I asked: “why did you fool us for 2 hours, and when the boarding actually began, you didn’t announce us by name” and heard the answer: “we are not obliged to do this.”

As it turned out later, AZUR air employees lied shamelessly. Our plane didn't fly anywhere. He took off only an hour and a half later!!! And the last message about the end of boarding sounded 8 minutes before we arrived at the counter. They just didn’t want to bother and seat 2 passengers separately. It was complete chaos!

(For those who are interested in details, at the end of this review I provide official data from Domodedovo voice messages with my comments).

There was no one at all at the ANEX Tour and AZUR air counters in Domodedovo. Everyone got busy. The only representative of this high “business” could only be found at the ANEX Tour box office. There we were given the phone number of a certain representative: +7-963-633-3580.

This virtual representative of Anex Tour offered us to fly in three days by paying an additional 50,000 rubles (!) to Azur Air for their tickets. That is, pay another 50,000 rubles to the office that just cheated us. How do you like this proposal? Apparently, so that we would not argue too much, the representative said that if this does not suit us, then we can fly away by purchasing a ticket from any other airline.

We did just that, bought a ticket for the same day and rushed to another airport. I didn’t want to lose three days of a 10-day tour.

However, the same mysterious representative called back 10 minutes after we bought other tickets and told us that since we bought tickets from another airline, then AZUR air would cancel our return tickets. Class! That is, either pay our office another 50,000 rubles and fly in three days (losing a third of the 10-day tour), or buy return tickets. Apparently this was invented in order to make money by selling our return tickets.

As a result, we also had to buy return tickets from another airline. That is, we bought 4 tickets - 2 to Phuket and two back. Do I need to explain how much one ticket to Phuket costs? How about four?

We also had to pay extra for the transfer: 70 km by taxi from Phuket airport to the hotel.

This was the amount that the “customer-oriented” employees of AZUR air and ANEX Tour charged us for. They put it out because for an hour and a half they were too lazy to organize separate boarding for two passengers.

What happened in Thailand did not surprise us in any way. The mayhem continued. We contacted the ANEX Tour representative assigned to the hotel for clarification. A man named Vitaly told us that he had nothing to do with air transportation. When we pointed out to him that AZUR air is essentially one company with ANEX Tour, he (attention!) stated that he was not associated with ANEX Tour. At the same time, he was wearing a T-shirt with the ANEX Tour emblem. And then, to end the conversation, he generally uttered a wonderful phrase: “let’s assume that we haven’t met” and quickly left.

We were shocked. Three days of calling the ANEX Tour hotline in Phuket and this Vitaly “hotel guide” finally showed up, an hour late. He photographed our passports for some kind of statement and we never saw him again.

I wrote a letter to ANEX Tour and AZUR air asking for compensation, but, as expected, I received a couple of replies in response.

What should I say in conclusion?

Thanks to the actions of Anex tour and Azur air employees, we were forced to spend a huge amount on re-buying 4 tickets to Phuket and back. In return for the vacation for which we paid 100,000 rubles, we received a lot of anxiety, nervous tension and stress. Those who were supposed to provide us with a comfortable stay turned it into a nightmare.

If you don’t want your vacation to turn into a similar nightmare, if you don’t like having your feet wiped by those to whom you paid decent money... then I categorically do not advise you to contact the Anex tour company and their accomplices from Azur air.

I sincerely hope that this review will help protect you from the problems that befell us.

I am preparing documents for the court.

And now with the details so that the previous text does not look unfounded. Next, I comment on the audio messages of Azur Air Airlines, based on official data provided by the Domodedovo AP:

At 14:41 an announcement was made that boarding for our flight had begun. Then there were several repetitions of this message. This information was not true. Boarding had not started, the gate was closed, and passengers were crowding at gate No. 19.

Then, at 14:48 the message “Dear Ladies and Gentlemen! AZUR air airline closes passenger boarding for flight No. 7733 to Phuket. Passengers are invited to exit No. 19."

This message was also disinformation. boarding had not yet begun, the gate was still closed, and passengers began to sit in chairs nearby.

At 15:04, another message was heard: “Attention to passengers of the airline AZUR air. Departure of flight No. 7733 to Phuket is delayed. Departure time is 16:00 The airline apologizes for the inconvenience caused.”

Three minutes later another message sounded: 15:07. Dear Ladies and Gentlemen! AZUR air invites passengers departing on flight No. 7733 to Phuket to board. Passengers are invited to gate No. 19. The gate has been changed.”

And again the Airline fooled passengers. No landing began. People jumped up from their chairs in the hall and sat back down.

Thus, messages with an invitation to board alternated with messages about another flight delay of half an hour. however, there was no actual boarding and the gate was closed. With these messages, AZUR air made passengers nervous and misled them.

We spent about two hours in this situation, and when the next message about the flight delay sounded, we got up from the chairs in the hall and went to the next floor to the Duty free store. In order not to miss boarding, we accessed the Internet using our smartphone. We understood that we had to appear at the gate no later than half an hour before departure, and after going to the store, we began to monitor the airport’s electronic board via the Internet on a smartphone. On this board the flight was still delayed.

We were out at gate 19 for about 30 minutes. At 17:20 we returned to gate no. 19. There were no passengers at the counter. My girlfriend looked at the airport board on her smartphone; on the board, our flight was still delayed. We asked where the boarding gate was moved?

In response to this, an AZUR air representative stated: “your plane has departed, your luggage has been removed from the flight, you need to leave the customs area and get your luggage.”

As it turned out later, this statement was a cynical lie. our plane took off only an hour and a half later at 19:00. Moreover, the last message that boarding was ending sounded at 17:11, that is, 9 minutes before we approached the gate. How was it possible to finish boarding passengers and fly off in 9 minutes!?

It is obvious to us that the representatives of AZUR air simply did not want to take on the hassle associated with boarding two passengers, so we were told that the plane had already departed. But we didn’t know this then.

We asked why we weren’t called to board by our last names through the airport’s public address system? In response, they stated that they were not obliged to do this.

We were expelled from the customs and border zone, and we approached the baggage claim counter at the Domodedovo airport. The airport employee was surprised by Azur air's decision and told us that the plane was still at the airport. I was shocked.