In the summer, air tickets can sharply rise in price

Flights in Russia in the summer season can significantly increase after a new increase in the cost of aviation kerosene, companies are preparing to reduce transportation volumes, the Kommersant newspaper writes on Sunday.

According to the publication, only for the March -April airline, it went up by 20%, from last fall - by 70%, and now the airlines based in Moscow received official notifications from the administrations of fuel complexes (TZK) to increase the price of fuel from May 1 by 12.3%.

Its sellers argue that all the latest increase have occurred as a result of an increase in wholesale prices for oil refineries owned by oil companies. “The increase in prices is due to the desire of oil workers to significantly increase their profits: the prices of supplies from the refineries and traders rose in May by 3-4 thousand rubles, and from September 2007 - by 70%,” said Vladimir Spiridonov, General Director of Aerofuels, which owns the network of his own TZK in a number of Russian airports.

"Prices rose at once on all refineries, which indicates a cartel conspiracy between oil companies," said Evgeny Ostrovsky, head of the trading house, the head of the trading house "Fuel support for airports. According to him, the prices of airline in Russia are set at the world level: according to the fresh quotes of the international Platts system, the cost of a ton of kerosene in Europe is 1.215 thousand dollars.

In this situation, air carriers predict a reduction in passenger transportation volumes by air. “Airlines already have practically no resources for reducing expenses, so that the prospects for the availability of air transportation in Russia are becoming increasingly remote,” Kommersant quotes the words of the deputy general director of Aeroflot Leva Koshlyakov.

He noted that the operation of aircraft with high fuel consumption, such as the Tu-154, which today form the basis of the domestic air park, becomes unprofitable. "With such fuel expenses, most airlines will be doomed to unprofitable activities," Koshlyakov believes.

“Of course, we will increase ticket prices in order to compensate for fuel expenses,” the UTair CEO Andrei Martirosov agrees with him. “If this does not save the air carrier economy that do not have fuel -efficient aircraft, they will reduce the number of flights or cancel entire routes.”

According to Boris Rybak, the general director of the Infomost consulting agency, if the Tu-154 is removed from the routes, the cost of air tickets can double.

According to Spiridonov’s estimates, with a new price level, Russian airlines will have to pay about $ 800 million for kerosene during the calendar year, which will increase the average cost of a passenger ticket by 1 thousand rubles - on average to the existing passenger flow, the newspaper notes.