Aeroexpress arranged a press tour in a business class coach

Representatives from 19 central mass media were among the first passengers to use the new service and to fully appreciate its merits. At Belorussky Railway Station, they got necessary documents - similar to those a business class passenger receives when buying a ticket in a ticket office. Those included a boarding pass and a seat layout diagram, the company’s booklet describing the new service and a questionnaire to assess the quality of service in the coach of enhanced comfort.

On board the business class coach, the passengers were offered hot and cold drinks and business press. They were pleasantly surprised to have free wireless Internet access (Wi-Fi) enabled by the WiMAX/Wi-Fi router installed in the coach.

On arrival at the airport, a press briefing was held in the Aeroexpress railway terminal’s VIP hall  to discuss the launch of business class coaches and other company’s projects seeking to improve the quality of passenger service. It was attended by LLC Aeroexpress’ Director of Sales Department and Promotion Vadim Semikin, Technical Director Evgeniy Chelbayev and Press Secretary Elena Frolova.

“Business class coaches started running as part of Aeroexpresses between Moscow and Sheremetyevo Airport on February 9, 2010. About 150 passengers have used this new service for one week since the ticket sales opened. This is a good result for the beginning of service,” remarked Press Secretary Elena Frolova giving a speech before the journalists. “Our estimates show that the business class service will be cost-effective even with a 20% occupancy rate per coach per trip.”

Answering the journalists’ questions, Aeroexpress’ Technical Director Evgeniy Chelbayev dwelt upon the changes made to the business class coach’s interior, which were initially envisaged by the AERO electric trains’ manufacturer ¬– the Demikhov machine building plant. Among other things, they include bigger space between the rows of chairs and additional equipment in the coach (refreshment stands, shelves for periodicals and additional Internet enabling hardware). He also emphasized the distinctive feature of chair blocks in the coaches. “In a business class coach, the back rest is positioned to provide maximum comfort for the passenger. We abandoned an automatic back rest control, thus improving reliability and durability of the entire block of chairs”, he noted.

Let us remind that Aeroexpress is planning to launch business class coaches on its other lines – in Domodedovo- and Vnukovo-bound trains – this year.

During the press briefing, the company also announced its plans to develop an automated Aeroexpress ticket sales system and to introduce a single intermodal document (for air, railway and underground transportation).

Aeroexpress is planning to expand its presence in other regions of Russia developing intermodal railway service to link cities and large airports and to support global international events (such as the APEC Russia 2012 summit in Vladivostok, the 2013 Student Games in Kazan, the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi),” told Press Secretary Elena Frolova. “Another our important project is cooperation with OJSC Russian Railways and the Moscow Government in developing Europe’s largest transportation complex Kalanchyovsky, whose completion is scheduled for 2015”, she added.