Pobeda’s carry-on requirements have been the subject of jokes and curses since 2014, when this airline appeared.
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS
Germany, Cologne, Konrad Adenauer International Airport, autumn 2018. All people, like people, quietly wait for the registration of their flights. And only the queue for the Pobeda check-in counters is on your ears. Noise, laughter, puns on Russian idioms.
“The stone flower is not included!” – clinging to bellies. “But it turns out great …” – complains the guy who is in the center of everyone’s attention. The poor thing is trying in vain to get his backpack into the “victorious” gauge (box for measuring hand luggage). He already took out a vest from a backpack and put it on. He pocketed simple souvenirs: magnets and a packet of hearty German cheese. It’s still a thick backpack! I had to go to extreme measures: change the shoes from light moccasins to massive sneakers that rested at the bottom of the backpack. “Victory!” – The satisfied audience burst into applause. Including an employee of the airline, who not only did not interfere in the action, but also helped with advice.
Pobeda’s carry-on requirements have been the subject of jokes and curses since 2014, when this airline appeared. For example, Aeroflot and S7 have the maximum allowable dimensions of hand luggage – 55 × 40 × 25 cm, and for Pobeda – 36 × 30 × 27 cm.
Will it be tight? Maybe. But conservative passengers, accustomed to flying Aeroflot planes and keeping money in a savings account, did not take into account one important point. Pobeda has always positioned itself as a low-cost airline, that is, a low-cost airline. And such carriers around the world go to different tricks, just to reduce the price of tickets. I was carried around the planet by a variety of low-cost airlines: Malay AirAsia, Turkish Pegasus, Irish Ryanair, Latvian AirBaltic, Hungarian Wizz Air, Russian Pobeda. And none of them is without rules, which may seem strange. Some have strict baggage requirements, some have hand luggage, some have to check in for a flight… But when you fly from Moscow to Antalya for 3,500 rubles, from Bangkok to Bali for 2,400 rubles, or from Berlin to Mallorca for 800 rubles, the carrier can be forgiven for everything. Or pay a little more – the same “Victoria” takes luggage from 899 rubles. But the rules of low-cost airlines do not suit you, no problem, airlines with more loyal rules and higher prices are always ready to take you.
It seemed that, little by little, the passengers of the Pobeda passed through all the stages of accepting the inevitable: denial, anger, cursing, sadness, and acceptance of the rules. But then the Supreme Court intervened. The other day he decided: the demands of the carrier “violate the rights of passengers.” Now Pobeda will have to increase the size of hand luggage. The dissatisfied will shut up, the airports will be quiet and calm. True, Pobeda is unlikely to be able to comply with the court order without raising ticket prices. And when (or after all “if”?) the airline raises fares, the court will no longer intervene. Hence the question: maybe it was not worth interfering with the only Russian low-cost airline to transport passengers cheaply around the country and the world, albeit according to its own rules? For the last nine years, he’s been pretty good at it.
