Flights inside the country: what Russian passenger air transportation looks like now

Russia will be able to resume international air traffic in August or September, said the head of the Ural Airlines Sergey Skuratov, but Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin still does not recommend that Russians plan summer vacation abroad. At the same time, the risk of flying to Russian resorts can still be on the quarantine.

According to Skuratov, the ban on international flights imposed on the coronavirus will gradually take the ban on the CIS countries at first, then they will be able to put direct air traffic with Georgia. But before that, it is still necessary to resume the full air service of the regions with Moscow and St. Petersburg - according to Skuratov, this will raise the occupancy of seats from 36% to 65–70%. Aeroflot in May stated that an international message could be resumed in the middle of summer.

Regular and charter air traffic with other countries was terminated by the Russian government from March 27. The exception was made only for flights that take Russians from abroad. The demand for flights in Russia also began to sharply decline in the second half of March.

In April 2020, Russian airlines transported only 771.2 thousand passengers, which is 91.8% less than last year. At the same time, in April, carriers sharply raised the prices for flights from Moscow: tickets with a departure in April - May from the capital in 15 largest Russian cities and back began to cost 50-110% more expensive than in March.

Professor of the State Civil Aviation, Alexander Friedland, told Vedomosti that "demand has fallen to zero, only people continue to fly, insensitive to the price who needs to fly away at all costs."

In May , the situation began to improve: Aeroflot increased the number of flights to 1000 per week, almost twice as much as in April. At the same time, the employment of passenger seats fell 2.6 times, to 31% (in 2019 - about 80%). This year, the Ural Airlines planned to increase transportation by 17%, to 11.23 million passengers, but due to coronavirus the company is waiting for a fall by 55%, that is, up to 4.32 million passengers.

Even until the flights were completely closed, the airlines received up to 500 million rubles of losses per day, since from Russia their planes flew empty. According to Bain & Company experts, due to the abolition of international flights, the loss of carriers from February to September 2020 may amount to 360 billion rubles.

On June 1, Rospotrebnadzor canceled the requirement for low loading of aircraft. According to his initial recommendations, passengers should have been in masks, observe a social distance, and air carriers - to plant people in the salon in a checkerboard pattern. To fulfill this requirement, it was necessary to sell tickets for no more than 50% of the seats in the cabin, but this idea did not find understanding with the Ministry of Transport and the Federal Air Transport Agency: in particular, the Minister of Transport Yevgeny Dietrich stated that in this case the cheapest tickets would cost 70 thousand rubles. Sources in the airlines said that they agree to fill out aircraft by 50% only if subsidizing the second half of the places, for which they were not ready in the government.

As Boris Rybak, the head of Infomost, told Kommersant, even after the cancellation of the requirements for loading salons, no more than 50% in the recommendations there are many gaps. “Not all airports have television studies, and passengers can become infected from each other on the bus during a trip from the terminal to the plane. The infection can be transmitted during the delivery of things to the luggage compartment of the aircraft before departure: if the baggage will take at least one virus carrier, the infection will spread to the things of all the following passengers. All this is not taken into account in the recommendations, ”the fisherman believes. In his opinion, the rules for air transportation in the context of pandemia should draw up epidemiologies in conjunction with representatives of the industry.

Now the conditions of different companies are not particularly different: passengers with temperature are not allowed on board, everyone needs to be in protective equipment, and the mask is obliged to change every three hours.

According to the new Aeroflot rules , throughout the flight, passengers are prohibited from unfastening belts and moving beyond the toilet. They will offer them food either in a sealed individual packaging, or after heat treatment on board. Cold drinks will be served only in individual packaging. Passenger products and drinks, including baby food, can be carried on board only in unwinded sealed packaging. All the time on board, outerwear should be on a shelf for hand luggage. It is not allowed to get outerwear during the flight without a good reason and informing the flight attendant.

In the near future, Russia will not be able to fly further for sure, and European countries are still in no hurry to open its borders - only Italy said that she was ready to accept Russian tourists from June 15. Prime Minister Mishustin recommends that Russians do not yet plan vacation abroad, but rest in Russian sanatoriums. Moreover, now in some regions two -week quarantine continues to operate for visitors from Moscow and St. Petersburg - for example, in the Krasnodar Territory.

In the summer season, from June 1, they planned to resume Victory flights, Azur Air and Nordwind, but due to low demand, the companies had to reduce the number of flights to Black Sea resorts. So Azur Air postponed the beginning of flights: from Moscow to Sochi, the company will start flying only on June 15 and will operate one flight per day, from other cities - from June 17 or 18, twice a week.

According to Skuratov, the air industry will be able to recover to the level of 2019 only in July 2021.