So then, dear bloggers. As promised, here’s my report on the meeting with the head of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport (SVO). The meeting took place at the Marriott on Tverskaya Street. Besides me, blogger/journalist nl and two Sheremetyevo employees were there. The tools used to bribe freedom-loving bloggers included pastries and two handsome photo albums of the airport. Mikhail Mikhailovich Vasilenko (hereafter MMV) gives the impression of a man who knows his karma is taking a severe beating from the constant curses of airline passengers. But he takes it philosophically, understanding that a significant share of those curses is justified. He immediately suggested recording the conversation if I wanted to. He joked cheerfully about polonium in the tea. And in general, he had very clearly read all the comments on both of my posts about Sheremetyevo-2. And he’ll read this one too. So anyone who wants to send him their regards may do so. No one really understood what format this meeting was supposed to take, so MMV simply gave a short overview of how the airport works, and then we moved on to specific complaints. The general idea: Sheremetyevo’s problems stem from overcrowding and interagency coordination issues. The land belongs to different owners, and so does the road. Different parts are controlled by different traffic police units. The security agencies stationed at the airport operate independently, and there’s no way to influence them. Safety rules keep changing, and they’re constantly sending new directives that only create more confusion. There are also difficulties in dealing with Aeroflot, which wanted to service its own aircraft but couldn’t manage it. But all of this, supposedly, will be overcome once the new terminals open.
The specifics, in my free retelling, look like this: 1. What is this trash-fire from hell with the parking and access road? When will it end? We do not believe you’re incapable of fixing it. We do not believe Sheremetyevo staff aren’t protecting the taxi mafia. — We acknowledge the trash-fire from hell. The access road to Sheremetyevo-2 is controlled by Moscow’s special-route traffic police, while everything else is under the Moscow Region traffic police. This creates problems with towing cars. There is no real way to fight the connected people parking wherever they want. They’re meeting VIPs, they all have official IDs, and they tell the traffic cops to get lost. We do not control the adjacent parking lot; it isn’t ours, and we are fighting with it. We give you our honest word that no Sheremetyevo employees are protecting the taxi business. We try to drive off the gypsy cabs, but there are no legal tools for doing so, which is why they exist at every airport. Yes, our official airport taxi is not cheap, but taxi drivers are losing income because of the Aeroexpress rail link, so they’re forced to jack up prices. Right now we are ready to solve the issue of towing improperly parked cars and to organize an external parking lot with a departures/arrivals display board. I promise—and you can pass this on to everyone—that within two months we will solve the traffic jam problem at the entrance to Sheremetyevo-2. 2. What is going on with baggage claim? People wait two hours. When will that stop? The problems began in November, when Aeroflot started moving to its new terminal. And handling everything themselves. They couldn’t cope. Obviously passengers can’t see who is to blame, but still. The New Year holiday period was the peak of the crisis. People were waiting three hours. But you’re not denying that this is still your area of responsibility, and that we passengers don’t care about your squabbles with Aeroflot? I understand. We acknowledge that. We found a joint solution, and the problem will be eliminated. Bear with us for a couple of months. In general, we do have a standard: baggage should be delivered within 30 minutes. Right now that standard is met in 82% of cases, if you exclude the current problem period. We plan to reduce the standard to 20 minutes. 3. Your staff are rude. It feels like Sheremetyevo deliberately hires rude, pushy people. Our staff also think passengers are rude to them. But of course we are on the passengers’ side. Unfortunately, customs officers and border guards do not report to us. The border guards categorically refuse to work in a system where they are treated as service personnel like us. They believe they are not serving anyone, but guarding the state border, and that they are under no obligation to smile or speak politely. This issue has been raised repeatedly at meetings with the FSB (Russia’s security service). We are working with our own staff. They all attend special courses where they are taught warmth and kindness. But in general, this is a problem across the whole country. These are the kinds of people we have. 4. The passport control line. It’s insane. Why are only one or two booths open? Why isn’t the line organized in a zigzag “maze” like everywhere else? The border service is understaffed. People from Moscow and the Moscow Region don’t want those jobs. People from distant regions do, but there’s nowhere for them to live. We are willing to pay extra to the border guards, but we are not allowed to, so there is no way to motivate them. They do not report to us, and we cannot order them: go work in your booths! We ourselves are tired of this problem; 85% of complaints are connected to it. The issue is raised with the FSB regularly. We are trying to solve it by giving the border guards a dormitory and a preventive-care facility for housing. There are 30 people there; they will complete training and things will get a little easier. But in general, this is outside Sheremetyevo’s authority. We have installed those “maze” lines repeatedly, and our fellow citizens just smash them to hell. 5. Toilets. They are monstrously dirty. Have you tried cleaning them? (By the way, the fiercest discussion was about the toilets.) The airport was not designed for this many people. It is overloaded. And the toilets are overloaded too. We renovate them, and within a year they return to their original state. Come on. You just need to clean them more often. McDonald’s has even more people, proportionally and by traffic, and the toilets shine. Well, there is some common sense in that. We promise to work on the problem, hire additional staff, and so on. You’re probably right. 6. Wi-Fi. We are equipping the new terminals; Sheremetyevo-2 will be less crowded soon, and then we’ll install it. I promise that by summer there will be proper free Wi-Fi there, without restrictions or censorship. 7. Why can’t people photograph the airfield from the café on the 4th floor? It’s stupid. That’s it. We’re allowing it. You can tell everyone. And on the fifth floor too, in the museum, we’ll equip a special place for photography. There will be tripods there. 8. Why is there no McDonald’s, and why is food so expensive in general? We have to make money, so our rental space is not cheap. Naturally that forces cafés to raise prices. But we did invite McDonald’s to come in, and they refused. There will be a Burger King. 9. It feels like the terminal letter designations were invented by a madman. It’s impossible to make sense of them. That developed historically. They built a terminal between Sheremetyevo-1 and Sheremetyevo-2. What were they supposed to call it? Sheremetyevo-1.5? You have to understand that terminal names are registered in special directories and so on. So we appealed to ACI Europe (the European airport association). They recommended Latin-letter designations and developed the current system for us. 10. Why is there no mother-and-child room in Sheremetyevo-2? There is one, and there’s a play area too. It’s impossible to find. We promise to work on the signage and pictograms. 11. Why do you have to take your shoes off at the scanner? It’s stupid. That is a security instruction currently in force in Russia. If you don’t take off your shoes at another airport, that means their security service is turning a blind eye to it. We are constantly inspected, so we make people remove them. 11. How do you yourself rate Sheremetyevo-2? Do you agree that it is a VERY BAD AIRPORT? I think it is satisfactory. It cannot be good, because it was not designed for this many people. We have focused on building new terminals. 12. Do you agree with the ranking of the world’s worst airports, in which Sheremetyevo-2 holds the honorable second place? (He dodged the question.) 13. Please rate your own work personally. On a five-point scale. (He dodged the question.) 14. So what the hell are we supposed to do? Be patient. We’ll open the new terminals and life will improve. So that’s the short version. We actually talked for three hours, and of course I forgot some things. My overall impression: They’ve basically written off Sheremetyevo-2 and are focused on building new terminals, treating that as the only cure. Though when I asked about this directly, MMV objected vigorously. Plus there are contradictions with Aeroflot: each side is pulling the blanket toward itself and wants a bigger share of the money. They’re unlikely to come to terms with each other. As often happens, any person seems much more likable in face-to-face conversation than when you’re cursing them out while standing in line. A normal, smart guy. He understands everything. Polite, even pleasant. He explains everything patiently. You can patiently explain absolutely anything. That doesn’t make the problems any smaller. I still believe the chaos with parking and taxi drivers is financially benefiting someone in Sheremetyevo-2 management, although as you saw, MMV denies it. Well, he couldn’t exactly confirm it :) The positive outcome of the meeting is that clearly formulated promises were made. They are marked in italics throughout the text. Obviously, we unfortunately do not have the option of having MMV shot for failing to fulfill them, but still. We can subject him to a procedure of civic execution (public shaming), especially since he repeatedly insisted that he is a man of his word and swore that if he said he would do it, he would. It was right of him to decide to respond to public opinion and not switch into the stupid but beloved mode of our officials: “why should I be making excuses?” I am not backing away from the conclusions I made in the post “Sheremetyevo as Russia.” There is no real authority in this country. There’s a pile of officials. The Ministry of Transport, some damn other transport agency, the border guards, Aeroflot, the FSB, customs, the cops. They hold endless meetings and identify problems. Then, after meeting, they go back to making money. We’ve had ten years of PUTIN_ORDER and still can’t get the country’s one major airport into decent shape. That’s that.
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