Russian authorities may allow civilian aircraft to fly in this part of the airspace in the south of the country, which was closed immediately after the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine. RBC With reference to sources in the five airlines of the Russian Federation.
The relevant issue is planned to be raised on August 29 at an explanatory meeting with carriers on the organization of flights from the central regions to the south, bypassing the Kazakhstan airspace, which will be held by the State Air Traffic Management Authority (SC ATM). ).
The relaxations will reduce flight time to the open Sochi airport as well as Turkish airports that are the addressees of the release note. Thus, the flight time from Vnukovo airport to Sochi can be more than 20 minutes, back to Moscow – 10 minutes.
“This will be possible due to the removal of the 10 km wide route from FL330-530 (10.05–10.65 km) from the restriction regime. The flight time will also be shortened for flights from Moscow to Turkey.
Currently, airlines have already started their navigation calculations. Now the flight to Sochi takes at least four hours.
Pop-up passenger traffic
The Federal Air Transport Agency imposed restrictions on flights to 11 cities in the south and west of Russia on February 24. There are no flights to the airports of Anapa, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Gelendzhik, Krasnodar, Kursk, Lipetsk, Rostov-on-Don, Simferopol and Elista. Initially, the restrictions were imposed until March 2, but then the temporary flight restriction regime was repeatedly extended until the last time – September 4, at 3:45 Moscow time.
Due to the restrictions, the increased load this summer season fell to other airports in the south – Sochi, Volgograd, Mineralnye Vody and Stavropol.
Russian authorities previously allocated 3.1 billion rubles to support closed airports, and in mid-August Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin promised to increase Another 2.5 billion rubles of state support.
largest amount trusted Simferopol airport – 436 million rubles, Rostov-on-Don received 296.6 million rubles, Krasnodar – 259.2 million rubles, Anapa – 111.8 million rubles. Seven other airports – from 4 to 72.9 million rubles, depending on lost passenger traffic.
According to ATOR, airports lost more than 8 million passengers over the summer.
The presentation of the Ministry of Transport, which Vedomosti newspaper referred to, stated that airlines had to pay due to the closed airports in the south. to lose 19 million passengers in the whole of 2022. Last spring, airlines failed to transport 3.7 million people to airports in the south. In the fall, carriers may miss 2.5 million passengers.
holiday season
Resorts in Turkey and Russia’s Sochi have become the most visited destinations this summer. Travel prices to Turkey have increased twice. TravelBelka Online Tour Head Dilya Demidenko in an interview with socialbites.ca announced doubling the cost by first reducing the number of flights.
“They have shrunk many times due to flight restrictions and the ban on charter flights for Russian airlines. Most of the flights are operated by Turkish Airlines. The demand is huge and there are very few tickets, as a result we have much higher prices than usual,” he said.
In addition, prices were also affected by the inadequacy of existing destinations in Turkey and high inflation.
According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Russians in the first six months of 2022 visit That country is 1.46 million times, which is 43.6% less than in the first half of 2019.
ATOR estimates that in 2022, the flow of Russian tourists to Turkey may exceed last year’s figure, when Russians visited the country 4.7 million times.
According to ATOR Vice-President Sergey Romashkin, resorts in the Krasnodar Territory following the results of the summer holiday season can develop Last year’s figures for 5-7% tourist flow.
In general, Romashkin explained that the state of tourism in the Kuban this summer is “a little easier” than in other tourist areas, as Sochi airport is operating in full mode.