Airlines may be allowed to approach Donbass

Russian aviation authorities will discuss the possibility of directing air routes to Sochi and Turkey, using the airspace closed since February 2022 in southern Russia, announced on August 27 RBC. The discussion of the issue will be held on August 29, it will be attended by representatives of airlines. The meeting will be held by the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “State Corporation for Air Traffic Management” (GC for ATM), the newspaper reports.

After the start of NWO in Ukraine, the flight time to Sochi and Turkey from Moscow, according to the Tutu.ru online service, increased by an average of 1.5 hours, since air routes to the south were moved away from the border with the DPR, LPR and Ukraine and became pass through the airspace of Kazakhstan. The planes had to go around the sky over the southern cities, including flying over the Caspian Sea. Previously, a flight to Sochi through the south of Russia took about 2 hours, to Istanbul – 3.5 hours.

The source of Vedomosti in one of the major airlines also knows about the scheduled meeting on this issue. According to him, a detour through Kazakhstan is up to 45 minutes of flight on flights from Moscow to Sochi. But its cancellation in terms of the cost of transportation per passenger is a “penny”, the source notes. He doubts that with the continued high demand for flights in this direction, the straightening of the route will lead to a reduction in the cost of transportation.

According to the Aviatorshchina telegram channel, now carriers can be allowed to fly through Volgograd and Astrakhan, but only at an altitude of at least 10,000 m. According to sources RBC, getting to Sochi will be faster by 10–20 minutes. “Aviatorshchina” reports a reduction in flight time by 35 minutes. A TASS source also talks about 35 minutes, specifying that direct flights may be allowed from August 30.

Vedomosti sent inquiries to the Ministry of Transport, as well as to the largest Russian airlines. Rosaviatsia declined to comment.

Sochi Airport in Adler is the only open one on the Black Sea coast of Russia. Airports in Anapa, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Gelendzhik, Krasnodar, Kursk, Lipetsk, Rostov-on-Don, Simferopol and Elista were closed for security reasons after the start of the NWO on February 24, 2022. Since that time, the Federal Air Transport Agency has repeatedly extended the ban on flights to southern cities, now the restrictions are valid until September 4. According to the Ministry of Transport, airlines this year will lose 19 million passengers because of this (Vedomosti wrote about this on July 24).

To get to these southern cities is now possible only by land transport or a hybrid route. Airline «Aeroflot» and the Federal Passenger Company (long-distance operator Russian Railways) offer passengers the purchase of a plane ticket to Sochi and then a train ticket to Anapa, Krasnodar and Rostov-on-Don.

Oleg Panteleev, director of the Aviaport branch agency, believes that reducing the flight time using the airspace of southern Russia will have a positive effect on all participants in the aviation market. Transportation analyst Elena Sakhnova argues that the main benefit will be a reduction in fuel costs for carriers. According to her calculations, airlines, taking into account the damper mechanism, will save about 50,000 rubles. 20 minutes flight one way.

Moreover, according to Panteleev, the situation will also allow the ATM State Committee to again receive income from air navigation services. But the cost of a ticket for passengers, according to the expert, will not change: “The price of an air ticket is the ratio of supply and demand.” Sakhnova does not agree and believes that passengers will be able to save a little more than 300 rubles. for a ticket. In her opinion, the price may decrease due to the low season ahead of the carriers.