Page 118 - RusRPTMar21

9.1.3 Aviation sector news
The combined passenger traffic of Russian airlines fell by 38.1% on the year to 5.55mn people in January, the Federal Air Transport Agency said Thursday providing revised data. International traffic fell by 85% to 550,700 people, and domestic traffic decreased by 5.3% to almost 5mn people. The passenger traffic of S7 Airlines went down 12.9% on the year to 1.2mn people in January, of Aeroflot plummeted by 60.4% to 1mn people, of Aeroflot’s low-cost subsidiary Pobeda fell by 0.5% to 928,000 people, of Ural Airlines plunged by 41.4% to 406,700 people, of Rossiya Airlines decreased by 31% to 391,300 people, and of Utair fell by 32.5% to 374,000 people.
The Russian government is considering more subsidies for airlines.
With fuel prices growing back to their 2019 levels and international destinations still closed, Russian airlines continue to ask the government for additional financial help.
S7 has suggested prolonging the financial aid package that was in place in March-November 2020 for the period from December 2020 to April 2021.
Under it, the airlines get RUB685 for each lost passenger vs. 2019-20.
That would require an additional RUB12bn in subsidies (23 were allocated last year, out of, which 21 were used).
Given the current environment and the lost summer season of 2020, we think that subsidies are indeed vital for survival, especially for regional airlines (which were not capitalised).
The authorities seem to be supportive: Sergey Ivanov, the Special Representative of the President of Russia, said yesterday that Russian airlines could get more subsidies.
If subsidies are approved, Aeroflot might get around RUB6bn.
118 RUSSIA Country Report March 2021 www.intellinews.com