Aeroflot resumes financing of VIM-Airlines

Russia’s flagship carrier Aeroflot has resumed financing of VIM-Airlines (VIM Avia), a spokesman with the company said.

"Aeroflot is resuming financing VIM-Avia due to the fact that the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Alexander Neradko signed all necessary documents at 12:09 Moscow time," TASS cited the spokesman as saying.

Earlier, a source in Aeroflot said that the airline suspended any financing of VIM-Avia in connection with the "refusal of the head of the agency to sign and verify the payments."

Russia’s tenth largest carrier announced on September 25 that it was stopping all charter flight operations due to financial problems and shortage of the working capital. 

The Federal Air Transport Agency has initiated an unscheduled inspection of VIM Airlines. According to the agency, substantial flight delays were linked to the company’s debts to fueling companies. The agency says that the VIM Airlines debt arrears had amounted to seven billion rubles ($121.638mln).

The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case into a suspected large-scale embezzlement by some of the company’s officials.