Over 50 Aeroflot flights delayed at Sheremetyevo.

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MOSCOW, December 29 (Itar-Tass) - Over 50 flights of Russia's flagship
carrier Aeroflot and its partners remain delayed at Moscow's Sheremetyevo
airport as of early on Wednesday following icy rains during the weekend,
airport spokeswoman Anna Zakharenkova told Tass.
These are the flights initially scheduled for December 26, 27 and 28.
All in all, over 7,000 people remain stranded at the airport. A total of
310 planes carrying 22,000 passengers have taken off from the airport over
the past 24 hours.
Zakharenkova once again stressed that the flights of the companies
whose ground servicing is made by the airport "take off as scheduled".
Aeroflot itself services its planes and planes of some partners in the Sky
Team alliance.
"We try to do all to make hours of waiting easier for the passengers,"
she continued. In particular, 30 airbeds have been brought to the
departures zone for children. Besides, passengers constantly receive hot
meals and water, and passengers of Terminal F don't pay luggage locker
fees.
Specialists are cautious about making forecasts as to when the
situation will normalize. Shortages of de-icing fluid at Sheremetyevo have
grounded about half of its flights.
Earlier, Aeroflot Director General Vitaly Savelyev said the shortages
are because "a German fails to supply it". "We have appealed to them
several times, we have sought a penalty, but a certain collapse because of
a similar icy rain happened in Europe, and supplies are disrupted," he
explained.
All in all, the shortfall in delivery is about 500 tons of de-icing
fluid. This is the amount sufficient for about a week. "We operate in the
just-in-time system mode, and we do have the fluid at the moment. If the
weather conditions don't deteriorate, we will continue sending planes,"
Savelyev stressed.
On Wednesday Aeroflot intends to cancel 46 flights from Moscow to
Warsaw, Dresden, Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Prague, Baku, Zagreb, Kiev,
Istanbul, Stockholm, Antalya, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Vienna, Nice,
Rome, New York, Tokyo, Astrakhan, Volgograd, Yekaterinburg, Kemerovo,
Krasnodar, Kazan, Novosibirsk, Omsk, St. Petersburg and Sochi.
The Aeroflot press service says the passengers who don't want to
continue their flight can return tickets without commission fee
irrespective of when they return the tickets, or exchange them for a
different date. This can be done at any Aeroflot's booking office.
Railwaymen try to help in this situation. An additional Sapsan
high-speed train will travel from Moscow to St. Petersburg at 2 pm, Moscow
time, on Wednesday. Besides, special pay offices have been opened at
airports where tickets to long-distance trains are sold. Railways also
offer tickets to high-speed European trains, which can be bought at
Euronet points of sale.
Icy rains during the weekend caused a blackout at another Moscow's
airport - Domodedovo, which stopped flights on Sunday. It resumed flights
on Monday after getting a backup power supply, but hundreds of passengers
are still stranded.

.Govt presidium to consider pharmaceutical industry development.

MOSCOW, December 29 (Itar-Tass) - At its final for this year session
on Wednesday, the Russian Government Presidium will consider the targeted
federal program for the development of pharmaceutical industry till the
year 2020 and the implementation of the U.N. General Assembly resolution
declaring 2011 as the International Year of Forests, the press service of
the Cabinet of Ministers reported.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Andrei Dementyev will make a
report on the first issue. In order to reduce dependence on import
supplies of medicines and medical equipment, the program envisages, in
particular, an innovation development model for this sector.
The program envisages the total amount of investments at 188.67
billion roubles, including 122.559 billion roubles from the federal budget
and 65.508 billion roubles from extra budget sources.
The head of the Federal Forestry Agency, Viktor Maslyakov, will report
on the second issue. The United Nations General Assembly declared 2011 as
the International Year of Forests to raise awareness and strengthen the
sustainable forest management, conservation and sustainable development of
all types of forests for the benefit of current and future generations.
A draft decree envisages the setting up of an organizing committee for
preparing and holding in Russia events connected with the International
Year of Forests, and the appointment of First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor
Zubkov as its chairman.
According to the Federal Forestry Agency, the U.N. initiative is now
topical for Russia more than ever, following strong wildfires last summer.
-0-zhe/


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