FAS allowed Pulkovo to raise fares for regional flights by 20%

For the first time since 2019, the Federal Antimonopoly Service increased tariffs at Pulkovo Airport, and for flights from the regions they will increase by 20%. The service calculated that the increase would be no more than 116 rubles. per passenger. Experts note that airports, unlike airlines, cannot flexibly reduce fixed costs, and their modernization is often carried out using borrowed funds. Their opponents argue that raising fares will fuel a spiral of inflation and threaten to reduce passenger traffic.

The FAS is preparing to increase tariffs at Pulkovo, as follows from the draft order, which Kommersant has reviewed. The take-off and landing fee for aircraft on domestic routes (except for flights to Moscow) will increase by 20% for the first time since 2019, to 433 rubles. per 1 ton of maximum take-off weight (t/mwm). The fee for ensuring aviation security will increase by 20% – up to 397 rubles. per t/mwm, by 21% – for using the Pulkovo-1 terminal, up to 115 rubles. from the passenger. The tariff for passenger service remains unchanged – 292 rubles. per person. Accumulated inflation since 2019 over five years, according to Rosstat, is almost 41%.

We are talking about basic airport tariffs, which are regulated by the FAS. In 2016, the service deregulated all rates at Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo. Since 2020, the FAS has partially abolished tariff regulation at Pulkovo, but only for flights to Moscow and abroad. In the summer of 2022, the airport asked the FAS to deregulate them completely, but this has not happened yet (see “Kommersant” dated August 22, 2022). Then the base carrier of Pulkovo Rossiya complained to the FAS that this could lead to a decrease in traffic, since the increase in rates in 2021 on the Moscow-St. Petersburg line alone increased the company’s costs by 130 million rubles, or 175 rubles. from the passenger.

Unregulated tariffs, according to the Pulkovo website, will also increase by an average of 7.5% from January 1, 2024. Thus, on international routes and flights from Moscow, take-off and landing will increase in price from 519 to 558 rubles. per t/mvm. Pulkovo did not provide immediate comments.

The FAS confirmed to Kommersant that they had prepared for approval new tariffs for the airports of St. Petersburg, Novokuznetsk (Spichenkovo) and Saratov (Gagarin). They added that fees and tariffs at the airports of St. Petersburg and Novokuznetsk have not changed since 2019, and for Pulkovo the increase in tariff per round trip passenger will be no more than 116 rubles. The service emphasized that the tariffs they set are maximum, and airports can provide discounts to airlines.

There really are discounts, and relations between airports and airlines “are always extremely individual,” says Kommersant’s interlocutor in one of the companies flying to St. Petersburg. Therefore, it is incorrect to say that carriers will “immediately transfer the entire tariff increase” into the ticket price. Another Kommersant source objected that the cost of takeoff and landing in Pulkovo is approaching the level of Domodedovo (450 rubles) and even exceeds the prices in Vnukovo (278 rubles). The third notes that only Sheremetyevo Airport is more expensive (RUB 586.5), which, like Pulkovo, is under concession.

Aeroflot, S7, Smartavia, Red Wings, AzurAir and other companies flying to St. Petersburg did not answer Kommersant. Rossiya told Kommersant that they “were notified of the upcoming increase in tariffs” and plan to “request from the airport a justification for a significant increase in prices for unregulated services.”

Airports, unlike airlines, have a large share of fixed costs and cannot flexibly save resources, says Alexander Gushchin, director of the ACRA corporate ratings group. In addition, “their costs for import substitution of digital services, maintenance and purchase of equipment are also growing.” Mr. Gushchin emphasizes that the costs of modernizing airports are often financed by debt, the maintenance and repayment schedule of which involves indexation of tariffs. He notes that the recovery growth in population mobility continues, despite the rise in transportation prices: passengers are probably ready for an increase in ticket prices of up to 5%.

Such actions continue to spin the flywheel of prices, which have already increased significantly over the past two years, argues the head of the All-Russian Association of Passengers, Ilya Zotov. An increase in the cost of fees will lead to a decrease in passenger traffic and its transfer to trains, he believes. And if airports suffer losses due to their costs, it makes sense to compensate them by “requesting help from the state, not citizens.” However, Ilya Zotov recalls, Pulkovo received 4.8 billion rubles. net profit under RAS for 2022, and the increase in tariffs against this background requires explanation.

Aigul Abdullina