ArmInfo. Since August 2015, the business of TOSP Knitting Factory (Armenia) has been suffering losses due to the negligence of the Russian air carrier - Aeroflot - towards its small contractual partner. "I don't know how to reach out to the powerful Aeroflot, and this situation has been lasting for 8 months," Suren Bekirski, the head of the company, has told an ArmInfo correspondent.
Bekirski says that they have been cooperating with Aeroflot for over 20 years. The problems arose in August 2015, when the cargo was to be delivered to the destination point in New York within a couple of days but arrived in separate parts. The first parts arrived at the destination point within 20 days, the second part - within 25 days. "The most terrible thing is that the cargo was delivered in an absolutely spoilt condition," the businessman says. The goods were spoilt during their long stay at the transit warehouse in Moscow without relevant conditions of storage. The U.S. partners saw the spoilt goods and refused to accept them. TOSP delivered similar goods to the U.S. partners again not to disgrace itself and not to get the partners into trouble. It turned out that the U.S. partners also suffered big losses. "The compensation for all the additional costs lies on us," Bekirski says. As a result, he says, TOSP has lost over $50 thsd - the amount being commensurable with the monthly budget of the factory. Bekirski points out that 8 months have already passed but the company does not know who should compensate for its losses and whether there will be any compensation. As a matter of fact, Aeroflot ignores TOSP's requests and only formally says "Your request has been taken into consideration".
The first request was sent in September 2015. Aeroflot did not properly respond though according to the regulations the requests are to be considered within a month. Aeroflot confirmed the reception of TOSP's request three months after it had received the request. According to unofficial information from insiders, Bekirski learned that the case is being considered by the experts of an insurance company, which has a contract with Aeroflot and which has reinsured its risks at another insurance company. The latter, in turn, has insured its risks at a third insurance company. Aeroflot owes the commodity costs, transportation costs, fines for each day of delay and other costs to the Armenian company. "I have been working with Aeroflot for a long time and I had no reasons to trust it. I am very much upset by the behavior of our partner. It was a real stab in the back. Still, I hope that the problem will be settled fairly and peacefully," Bekirski says.