Russian Aeroflot Says Spent $12 Mln On Y2K

Updated 9:51 AM ET September 21, 1999

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian flagship carrier Aeroflot AFLT.RTS said Tuesday it had spent $12 million since November 1998 preparing for the Y2K millennium computer bug and would be ready for the problem when the clocks changed.

"Company specialists guarantee that Aeroflot will have no troubles as a result of the arrival of the year 2000," a statement by the carrier said.

The Y2K problem may arise in older computers which allot only two digits for the year in dates, meaning they may read 2000 as 1900 and cause systems crashes.

The airline said checks carried out by Airbus, Boeing and Luftgansa Technik had certified the computer bug would not affect Aeroflot's foreign-made aircraft.

It also said domestic-built Tupolev TU-154, Tu-134, Ilyushin IL-62M, IL-76, IL-86 and IL-96-300 aircraft were not jeopardized by the problem.

Also, Aeroflot said it had carried out checks on the computer system in its Moscow headquarters and 139 affiliate offices around the world, and signed an agreement with IBM on the purchase of new computer systems.

Earlier this month the Russian federal air transport service said the country's civil aviation sector was taking all the necessary preparations for the problem.

At that time a spokesman for the service said more than $100 million dollars had been spent ensuring the Y2K bug would not affect the sector.

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), September 21, 1999