Airports are asking for funds from the National Welfare Fund to upgrade infrastructure

As Kommersant learned, the regional holdings Novaport and Airports of the Regions proposed developing airfield infrastructure in the Russian Federation using funds from the National Welfare Fund in the form of soft loans for 25–30 years. It is proposed to return the money by introducing a passenger fee of 3–5% of the ticket price. The Ministry of Transport is against the additional burden on flight prices and expects to find funds in the regions themselves. The federal budget for 2024 allocates 22% less funds for airfields than planned, and nothing at all for the following years. Experts emphasize that if state support is reduced, passengers will still pay for airfields, albeit through differently designed tariffs.

Sources of Kommersant in the aviation market and in the government said that the Novaport holdings (includes the airports of Novosibirsk, Kaliningrad and a number of others) and Airports of the Regions (airports of Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, Saratov, etc.) turned to the assistant in the fall President Igor Levitin with a proposal to allocate funds from the National Welfare Fund for the restoration and modernization of airfield infrastructure.

We are talking about providing airports with preferential loans at 2% for a period of 25–30 years. Refunds are expected through the introduction of a new passenger fee of 3–5% of the ticket price. The money should be used to reconstruct runways and other state-owned airfield infrastructure. Until 2022, the Federal State Unitary Enterprise AGA (a), subordinate to the Federal Air Transport Agency, was responsible for this. Then the main part of the facilities was transferred to the control of the state customer FKU “Rostransmodernization” of the Ministry of Transport.

As Kommersant’s sources clarified, the government has been instructed to consider the proposed financing option to the Ministry of Transport. According to one of Kommersant’s interlocutors, the issue is being studied in connection with the completion in 2024 of the federal project “Development of Regional Airports,” which began in 2018. The draft budget for 2024 provides for 27.4 billion rubles, 22% less than expected a year earlier (35.1 billion rubles), and 25% less than in 2023 (36.4 billion rub.). In total, according to the project passport, 126.4 billion rubles have been allocated from the budget since 2019. No funding is provided for 2025–2026. The holdings’ proposal is considered as an option for further financing of airfields through public-private partnerships, a Kommersant source in the government clarified.

Kommersant’s holdings did not respond. The Ministry of Transport reported that “the mechanisms for allocating these funds have not yet been approved and are under discussion.” However, they emphasized that they consider it “unacceptable to shift any costs to passengers in the form of additional fees.” To develop infrastructure at a number of airports, the Ministry of Transport is working on attracting funds from the regions, the ministry added. “Alternative sources of private financing” are also being considered.

The airports declined to comment. But a number of them already use a similar mechanism. Thus, Sheremetyevo includes an investment component for the airfield concession in the take-off and landing fee for airlines. A Kommersant source at one of the large regional airports clarified that, taking into account the “obvious future reduction in state funding for the aviation industry,” the growing costs “will also obviously have to be covered by airlines, and the costs of carriers by passengers.”

Red Wings is against increasing the financial burden on passengers. They emphasized that modernization and maintenance of the technical condition of the airfield infrastructure is “the prerogative of the state.” Other air carriers did not respond to Kommersant. But sources in two large companies note that airport tariffs already have a significant impact on the price of transportation. As noted, for example, on the S7 website, “airport taxes, all taxes and fuel surcharge are included in the ticket price.”

“When there are no more budget funds, the costs of airfield projects will have to be passed on to the passenger, whether this will be called a fee or simply included in the tariff for carriers,” confirms Oleg Panteleev, executive director of the Airport. From an image point of view, he clarifies, airlines “are more profitable if the fee is highlighted as a separate line and paid at the airport, rather than when purchasing a ticket.” But this is inconvenient for the passenger, the expert admits.

Mr. Panteleev explains the position of the Ministry of Transport by the fact that an increase in ticket prices will have an inevitable impact on passenger traffic, while the ministry “faces the task of increasing mobility, transport accessibility and connectivity of the regions.” According to the expert, a response to the problem of lack of budget funds for the widespread development of airfield infrastructure could be “clearly establishing the rules of the game and taking into account the priorities of the state.”

“It is worth specifying what minimum level of airfield infrastructure a particular city or agglomeration should have,” he explains. “This level will depend on the population, the proximity of large hubs, and the development of ground transport. In this case, the state will prioritize bringing the infrastructure of regional airports to this minimum level. If the plans of the regions or airport investors significantly exceed this minimum, the state will be able to support the project by providing preferential loans or tax breaks.”

According to Mr. Panteleev, an integrated approach will help “stop the bacchanalia, when governors organize a race for government offices, and whoever reports more convincingly and higher receives funding, and as a result, palaces that are not very in demand appear in the deserts.”

In international practice, airport taxes are accepted in the range of $2–3 per passenger, notes General Director of the Airport Association Viktor Gorbachev: “These are unprincipled amounts by Western standards, sufficient for impressive volumes of traffic.” However, a similar fee in the Russian Federation in the equivalent of up to 300 rubles, in his opinion, will not cover the necessary volumes of financing for the reconstruction of airfields: the resulting 30 billion rubles with a passenger flow of 100 million people per year. won’t be enough.

Additional fee of 500–1000 rubles. ($5–10) per passenger, which “in theory would actually cover the costs,” will have a negative impact on passenger traffic in the regions, Mr. Gorbachev believes. An alternative source of funds, in his opinion, could be an increase in non-aviation revenues of airports from retail and catering. Now, the expert clarifies, in the regions the share of airport income from commerce does not exceed 20%, while in small Western airports it is usually more than 40%.

Aigul Abdullina