Kommersant learned about plans to introduce an additional fee from air passengers
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The Ministry of Transport returned to discussing the idea of creating a “passenger support reserve fund” in case of bankruptcy of airlines. About it informed Kommersant, citing sources.
Rostec confirmed the discussion of this idea, but the Ministry of Transport did not respond to the publication’s request. It is specified that in June the agency notified the airlines about the development of the idea of creating a “national system of mutual settlements in air transport”, the operator of which will be Aviagarant JSC, registered in the summer of 2021.
It is assumed that the fee will be collected from passengers when issuing a ticket. The funds will be sent to the reserve fund, from which it will be possible to reimburse passengers in the event of bankruptcy of the airline or cancellation of the flight, a source in Rostec explained.
A source close to the Ministry of Transport reminded that now there is no clearly defined procedure for the airline in case of financial difficulties. The creation of a reserve fund will also avoid a situation where passengers have to wait for a refund for years.
However, the amount of the fee has not yet been determined. According to the interlocutors of the publication in airlines, its size can be from 150 to 300 rubles. At the same time, one of the largest airlines reminded that the system of mutual settlements already exists, the amount of the fee in which is 185 rubles. It is managed by the Transport Clearing House (TCH), whose vice-president is Alexei Shubenkov, head of Aviagarant. A source close to Rostec ruled out duplication of fees in TCH and Aviagarant.
According to Rosstat, Russian airlines carried 95.2 million passengers last year. In the case of the introduction of an additional fee in the amount of 150-300 rubles. the volume of funds in the reserve fund will amount to 1.5-3 billion rubles, Kommersant writes. But these funds will not be enough in the event of a recurrence of the pandemic or the introduction of new sanctions in the first years after the creation of the fund.
At the end of March, Minister of Transport Vitaly Savelyev predicted the volume of passenger traffic of Russian airlines for the whole of 2023 at the level of 101 million passengers. Of these, 81.9 million should come to domestic passenger traffic, that is, the figure is expected to grow by 5.4% compared to 2022, but will decrease by 6.4% compared to 2021.
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