Page 7 - World Airnews Magazine May 2021 Edition

RUSSIA

RUSSIAN AVIATION – IN DEPTH

By Heidi Gibson

2020 till now several international routes related to the economic situation in the

have been re-established and at present country due to a reduction in personal

here is a slow uptick in the domes- Russia has flight connections with more income. The pandemic has also affected

Tti c aviati on sector of Russia, while than 20 countries. However, the flights plenty of companies related to the business
international flight remains limited. It’s a with most of the European community, travel market.

similar picture to the rest of Europe. World South East Asia, China, US and Latin WAN: FURTHERMORE, RECENT
Airnews editor Heidi Gibson got a chance America remain suspended and nobody ARTICLES SHOW THAT FOR THE

knows till when. Internal domestic flights
to ask our World Airnews correspondent are relatively active as all the airports and FIRST TIME, A PRIVATELY OWNED

Yuri Laskin about the state of aviation in domestic airlines are in operation. There AIRLINE S7, WAS THE BEST

Russia, across all sectors – military, defence are no restrictions for domestic travelling PERFORMER FOR FEB. CAN YOU

and commercial. but the passengers have to follow mask- TELL US HOW MANY PRIVATELY
OWNED AIRLINES - CHARTER
WAN: WHAT A YEAR IT WAS LAST gloves regime onboard the planes and COMPANIES, CARGO OPERATORS
within airport terminals.
YEAR! PREDICTIONS ARE THAT AND TOUR OPERATORS THERE ARE
2021 AND 2022 WILL ALSO BE A WAN: THE TRAFFIC LEVEL OF IN RUSSIA?
STRUGGLE. CAN YOU BRIEFLY DOMESTIC RUSSIAN COMMERCIAL
DESCRIBE WHAT CHALLENGES THE AVIATION FOR FEB REACHED 5.1 The main players among the airlines are

RUSSIAN AVIATION INDUSTRY MILLION PASSENGERS OR 37% Aeroflot with its Rossiya subsidiary, S7
and UTAIR. One of the newcomers which
FACED WHEN THE PANDEMIC DOWN ON THE SAME MONTH PRE- operates only in the domestic sector, made

HIT AND WHAT HAPPENED TO COVID. WHAT ARE THE FACTORS
COMMERCIAL AVIATION? THAT ARE DRIVING THIS SLOW the Sukhoi SuperJet is Azimut airlines based
in Rostov-on-Don.
In March 2020 practically all international UPTAKE? There are a number of low-cost airlines

flights in and from Russia were cancelled The main impact was COVID pandemic with for charter routes such as Pobeda (Victory)
due to Covid-19. The exception was the peak reached in December 2020 with a – Aeroflot subsidiary as well as Red Wings,

so-called ‘returning flights’ which brought maximum daily rate of infection as high as Azur Air, Nord Wind and a few smaller

back Russian citizens from abroad. This 30,000. Due to various measures including ones. One of the most interesting region-

allowed the return of about 120,000 different restrictions and vaccination being al airlines is Yakutia based in the Eastern

passengers with Russian and international introduced from January 2021 this count Siberia and Avrora based in Vladivostok.
passports (last from Commonweath of has dropped to around 8,000. The government is currently discussing a
Independent States or CIS countries). The The government has introduced a special programme to establish a joint airline for
passengers had to pay anything from (US) system of re-imbursement for domestic the Far East and Siberia. Further details are

$100 to $200 for these services which tourists with cash-back up of to 20% of the still to be provided.

wasn’t enough to compensate the airline total cost of travelling. The main reason

for the cancellation. From the summer of for low figures for domestic travellers is WAN: IS THERE A FUTURE FOR

World Airnews | May 2021
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