Airlines will receive another 2.5 billion rubles for ticket refunds

Rosaviatsia has identified 19 airlines-recipients of 2.5 billion rubles. subsidies in connection with the return of tickets for canceled flights, the press service of the aviation regulator announced on August 24. “Aeroflot“and” Pobeda “will receive almost 1.5 billion rubles. from this money.

Subsidies to airlines will be transferred from the federal budget, follows from the data of the Federal Air Transport Agency. Nordwind will receive 316 million rubles, “Ural Airlines“- 302.8 million rubles., S7 – 128 million rubles., Smartavia – 103 million rubles., “Utair“- 55.8 million rubles, Red Wings – 29.8 million. At the same time, Aeroflot will receive 1.4 billion rubles, and Pobeda, which is part of the same group, will receive 1.7 million rubles.

According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, payments will begin in late August – early September of this year, after the airlines conclude relevant agreements with the department. Vedomosti sent a request to the Federal Air Transport Agency, as well as to the largest Russian air carriers.

A Vedomosti source in one of the airlines noted that this support measure is “very good for the industry.” The subsidy essentially becomes the airline’s net profit, as carriers keep almost all of the proceeds from sold tickets to closed airports and incur no costs, he explains. Payments are made in several stages only because flights were canceled in stages, plus not all passengers immediately apply for a refund, even if flights have been canceled for a long time, the source explains.

This is the second time that airlines have received refunds for tickets. In early June, the Federal Air Transport Agency identified 20 Russian carriers, which received 16.9 billion rubles. Then the Aeroflot group received 12.5 billion rubles, of which 11.5 billion rubles. went to Aeroflot, A 980 million rubles. – “Victory.”

At the same time, airlines will be able to apply for such a subsidy again in the fall of 2022, follows from the government decree, which spells out the algorithm for obtaining state support. State support in this direction applies to both domestic and international flights. Such a measure will allow airlines to return the carriage fee for at least 1 million tickets. But the subsidy does not cover the entire cost of air tickets – 643 rubles are deducted from the final price, it is specified in the draft resolution.

Russian air carriers had to cancel a number of international flights after the start of a special military operation (SVO) in Ukraine in February 2022. Then the US, UK, Canada and EU countries closed their airspace to domestic airlines, and Russia introduced mirror measures.

Part of the domestic traffic was impossible due to the closure of 11 airports in the southern cities – Anapa, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Gelendzhik, Krasnodar, Kursk, Lipetsk, Rostov-on-Don, Simferopol and Elista. The current restrictions are valid until August 29. The Ministry of Transport expects that airlines will lose about 19 million passengers this year because of this (Vedomosti wrote about this on July 24).

By the beginning of August, Russian operators had already received support from the state for a total amount of about 54 billion rubles. Of these, 35.8 billion were subsidies for the transportation of passengers within the country, 1.3 billion were allocated to closed airports in the south, and 2.9 billion were allocated to cargo airlines. The total budget for supporting the aviation industry in 2022, according to the Federal Air Transport Agency, will amount to more than 125.5 billion rubles.

HSE expert Fyodor Borisov explains that the original purpose of this subsidy was to reduce the cash gap, since many airlines were “in a state of shock.” “Most of the cost of the air ticket is subsidized, minus VAT and labor costs,” adds Borisov. Airlines, according to the expert, receive money directly and direct it to current needs.