Russian airlines warn of sharp airfare rise in 2020

Russia’s Association of Air Transport Operators announced that a substantial increase in airfares should be expected in 2020.

Airline tickets for the first quarter of next year have already risen in price by 3-18%. The most expensive tickets are for Russian holiday travel periods between January 1 and 6, February 3 and 24 and March 9 and 16.

Experts attribute the increase in airfares to the financial losses of Russian air carriers. So, for the nine months of 2019, losses amounted to 9.7 billion rubles ($152.74 million), and in general for the year they can reach 40 billion rubles ($629.58 million).

This is due to the fact that in January – September expenses for Russian airport services increased significantly by 23%, wages by 18.8%, mandatory insurance by 17.9%, and total fuel costs went up by 8.8% .

In early September, Russian Ministry of Transport announced that the cost of domestic air tickets for flights within the Russian Federation in the first half of the year increased by 7%. Rosstat (Federal State Statistics Service) reported an increase in the average cost of an economy class flight by 24%. However, the Federal Antimonopoly Service refuted the calculations of the Federal State Statistics Service, noting that the data presented reflect only the average cost to passengers.