The Minister of Transport began the meeting by saying that air travel has been developing at a stable pace in recent years: in 2012, Russian airlines transported 74 million passengers, a 15.4% increase. Domestic airlines transported 33.4 million passengers, an 8.2% increase from 2011. In 2012, a total of 4.76 million passengers travelled on regional routes, or 3.7% more than in 2011. One of the causes for this small uptick in this segment is the high prime cost of the routes on regional and local airlines.
The Minister informed the meeting participants that under the roadmap for the development of regional air travel approved by the Government, the key targets for 2015 are to increase passenger transport to 45 million people, to 6-7 million people on regional routes, and to increase the number of regional air routes to 1,500.
Currently the Russian Federation is implementing seven government support programmes in this sphere. According to Maxim Sokolov, these programmes are currently undergoing improvements. For example, changes have been introduced in the rules for extending subsidies to air transport organisations in order to improve the accessibility of air travel between the Far East to and European Russia and back. These rules expand the list of subsidised air routes to 42 (including Mineralniye Vody-Khabarovsk, Mineralniye Vody-Norilsk and Mineralniye Vody-Yakutsk air routes).
Mr Sokolov also said that the Ministry of Transport has developed a draft Government resolution On Extending Subsidies to Air Transport Organisations on the Territory of the Russian Federation to Develop Regional Air Travel on the Territory of the Russian Federation and to Form a Network of Regional Routes in the Russian Federation in 2013. This document is aimed at more efficiently using federal funds earmarked for subsidising regional air transport. Up to 50 new regional routes are expected to be created as a result of these efforts. According to a preliminary analysis, the list of routes will include about 10 routes, including destination and departure points on the territory of the North Caucasus Federal District.
Source: Ministry of Transport.
