A year without direct flights between the Russian Federation and Ukraine: no flights and not expected. Will Russians get to Egyptian resorts this year?

MOSCOW, October 24 – RIA Novosti/Prime. It will be exactly one year since the introduction of the mutual ban on Tuesday, October 25th. direct flights between Russia and Ukraine. During this time, the parties were unable to sit down at the negotiating table, so experts and political scientists, while assessing the losses of carriers differently, are unanimous on one thing - passengers will not see the Moscow-Kyiv flight schedule on airport boards any time soon.

In Ukraine, they demanded to abandon the Russian language at airportsAll information that is posted at Ukrainian airports or announced through loudspeakers must be in Ukrainian and English languages, said the Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Vladimir Omelyan.

Ukraine “closed the sky” for Russian passenger and freight transport from October 25, 2015 - with the beginning winter schedule. The sanctions list included the largest Russian carrier Aeroflot, then Transaero, which was still in a pre-bankrupt state, Yakutia Airlines, and S7 group airlines. All of the listed carriers flew charter or regular flights to what became Russian Crimea.

On the same day, Russia introduced mirror measures against Ukrainian airlines. The ban, noted a year ago by the Federal Air Transport Agency, will remain in effect until the decision of the Ukrainian authorities regarding Russian airlines will not be cancelled.

However, as the department stated, after the MH17 crash near Donetsk, the vast majority of Russian airlines refused to operate transit flights through Ukrainian airspace for safety reasons, and only a small part of domestic carriers made transit flights through the territory of a neighboring state when necessary.

"Previously, we and Ukraine had a dynamically developing air services market based on the principle" open sky“Unfortunately, we were forced to give an adequate response to the initiative of the Ukrainian side,” recalls Chairman of the Public Council under the Federal Air Transport Agency Pyotr Deinekin.

Victims and winners

The decision on the part of Kyiv hit, first of all, the aviation industry and airports of Ukraine itself, said Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov. According to data from Russian airlines cited by the Federal Air Transport Agency, more than 70% of passengers on all flights between the two states were Ukrainians. Passenger traffic between the two countries for 8 months of 2015 amounted to about 800 thousand people.

“No tragedy happened here, but Ukraine lost a lot. Our airlines are conscientious payers, airport taxes and overflight funds airspace Ukraine was paid regularly, so aviation enterprises Ukraine suffered great losses,” says Deinekin.

UAC will assess the consequences of including the company on the Ukrainian sanctions listUnited Aircraft Corporation has been consistently working for several years on smooth import substitution and diversification of suppliers of a number of aviation systems, the company said.

Director of the Ukrainian Institute for Policy Analysis and Management Ruslan Bortnik recalls Ukraine’s losses from transit. “We have lost not only the opportunity to earn money on air travel with Russia, but also part of the transit potential. Many Russians flew to Russia through Ukrainian airports, I think that today we are talking about a tens of percent drop in transit potential, although the number of air passengers traveling to Ukraine this year has increased," the expert said.

Last November, Andrei Pivovarsky, then the Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine, estimated the losses of the State Enterprise for Air Traffic Services of Ukraine from the ban on transit traffic for Russian airlines at 25-30 million euros per year.

According to the head of the analytical service of the Aviaport agency, Oleg Panteleev, it is quite difficult to accurately estimate the losses of Russian airlines from bans on flights to Ukraine. “Obviously, there are no exact figures (losses - ed.), because airlines were basically able to quickly revise their route networks and schedules, thereby finding other sources of income and opportunities to use their aircraft,” he said. According to the expert, the losses of carriers are associated, firstly, with a general reduction in the number of flights, and secondly, with the need to fly over the territories of countries.

Not only airlines, but also airports suffered losses. In February of this year, Domodedovo Deputy Director Denis Nuzhdin assessed the losses Russian airports from the suspension of air traffic with Ukraine in the amount of 690 million rubles.

And, for example, the Belarusian airline Belavia, on the contrary, benefited from the cessation of air traffic between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, Panteleev said. “It is this carrier that offers the shortest and fastest option to get from the vast majority of points in Russia to a number of cities in Ukraine,” he said. This air carrier was able to transfer a significant part of passengers traveling on direct flights to its planes with a transfer in Minsk.

Belavia itself reported that immediately after the cessation of air traffic between the two countries, it doubled its passenger traffic on the Minsk-Kyiv line. And in December, the carrier opened a flight to Kharkov.

There is readiness, but no contacts

At the end of October 2015, the State Aviation Service of Ukraine received a letter from the Federal Air Transport Agency with a proposal to hold negotiations on restoring air traffic between the countries, but the Ukrainian agency stated that the position expressed by the Russian Federation is unacceptable for Kyiv.

The Ukrainian side insisted that in order to begin the negotiation process, Russia must stop operating flights to Crimea and pay a fine for flights of Russian airlines over territories where Kyiv has closed airspace.

And in November, the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure announced that Kyiv would not allow airlines from the Russian Federation to fly to the country’s airports while they were flying to Crimea.

A record number of tourists will visit Crimea in 2016According to the forecasts of the head of the Crimean Parliament Committee on Sanatorium-Resort Complex and Tourism, Alexey Chernyak, in 2016 the number of tourists visiting Crimea will exceed 5 million.

Over the course of the year, Moscow has repeatedly expressed its readiness for negotiations and compromise. In August, the head of the Ministry of Transport, Maxim Sokolov, once again stated that the Russian Federation is ready to resume dialogue on these issues, both in whole and in parts.

“In the near future, there is absolutely no opportunity to restore these transportation and direct air connections between Ukraine and Russia. Obviously, everything comes down to political ambitions, and the political confrontation that has unfolded between Ukraine and Russia,” says Bortnik.

Deinekin also believes that there will be no progress on this issue in the near future. “Are you asking how long this will last? Unfortunately, it will last a long time. So until political will is shown, this absurd situation will continue,” he believes.

“The Russian side is open to dialogue on this issue. The Ukrainian side does not enter into official contacts,” the press service of the Russian Ministry of Transport confirmed to RIA Novosti.

“The president recently put into effect the decision of the National Security and Defense Council to extend sanctions for another year. This is the answer to the question about the possible resumption of air traffic,” the State Aviation Service of Ukraine answered RIA Novosti’s question.

Since 2015, restrictive measures have been in force against Russian individuals and legal entities in Ukraine. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko in October, by his decree, put into effect the decision of the National Security and Defense Council on the extension and expansion of the sanctions list in relation to legal and individuals RF. The list has been supplemented by 167 enterprises. In particular, sanctions have been introduced against UTair airlines that limit, partially or completely stop the transit of resources, flights and transportation across the territory of Ukraine.

New US sanctions due to the Skripal poisoning may affect the largest Russian airline Aeroflot. In fact, this means that by the beginning of winter, Russia and the United States may be left without direct air service for the first time in the last 30 years. What will this mean for the company itself and for passengers?

The US State Department announced on the evening of August 8 that Washington is preparing new sanctions against Russia in connection with the Skripal case.

As part of the first wave of measures, which take effect on August 22, the United States will ban the issuance of licenses for the export of goods related to national security to Russia.

The second wave of sanctions involves the possibility of depriving the aircraft of any airline controlled by the Russian government of the right to land in the United States.

Aeroflot fits this description - it is 51.2% owned by the state, another 3.5% is controlled by the state corporation Rostec. It is the only one that flies directly from Russia to the USA.

This will happen if Russia, three months after the introduction of the first wave of sanctions, does not provide a guarantee that it will no longer produce and use chemical weapons.

Against the backdrop of news about possible sanctions after the opening of the Moscow Exchange, Aeroflot was among the leaders in the fall. For some time, the airline's share price dropped to the level of early 2008, although by the end of the day the company's shares partially recovered the fall.

Profitable or not?

Aeroflot declined to comment. Flights to the USA are a profitable direction for this company, notes the head of the AviaPort analytical service, Oleg Panteleev.

But as a result, the volume of sales of round-trip air tickets from Russia to the USA in the first 7 months of 2018 decreased by almost a quarter compared to the same period last year, data from the Biletix service show.

“Only Aeroflot can be competitive in this market.” It has sufficient transportation capacity and a powerful sales network, including in the States. This allowed him to consistently squeeze out American carriers from the Russian route, because Aeroflot was more competitive,” notes Panteleev.

In March 2018, for example, the American company Delta left the route between Russia and the United States. For American carriers, domestic flights are more profitable than flights across the ocean to Russia, the expert notes.

How « Aeroflot « Has politics affected you before?

In March 2018, an Aeroflot plane that flew from Moscow to London was searched by British customs. The Russian Foreign Ministry and the company itself stated that the British authorities did not give a reason for the search and carried out the search without letting the ship’s commander out of the cockpit. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the inspection a provocation that was required by the British authorities to “save their reputation, which was completely undermined in connection with the Skripal case.”
In 2014, Aeroflot’s low-cost subsidiary Dobrolet, after 2 months of operation, fell under EU sanctions due to flights to Crimea. Contractors, including the German Lufthansa Technik, refused to work with the company. As a result, Aeroflot liquidated« daughter« . The new low-cost airline received a new name - Pobeda - and a new operator certificate.
In 2003, Aeroflot was forced to temporarily change the routes of its flights over Canada and reduce the number of flights to Toronto.The conflict flared up due to the fact thatairlinesIAir Canadaaskedfly free from Toronto to Delhi over Russian territory , but she was refused. As a result, the Canadian government established restrictions on transit flights of aircraft« Aeroflot« .
In December 1981, Aeroflot was banned from flying in US airspace after the introduction ofWithSoviet troops in Afghanistan. In September 1983-of the year, After that how Soviet air defense systems shot down a Boeing 747 of the South Korean airline Korean Air Lines, air traffic between Russia and the United States was effectively blocked. Later, the blockade was lifted, but until 1986, Aeroflot representative offices in New York and Washington were closed and contacts between American airlines and Aeroflot were prohibited.

If they do cancel it

A senior State Department official told Reuters that Washington's planned sanctions on Russia would not directly affect Aeroflot, but could theoretically cover goods exported by the United States that the Russian airline purchases.

Flight bans could be imposed on Aeroflot at the second stage of sanctions if Moscow does not comply with Washington’s conditions, in particular, if it does not allow international inspections.

According to Panteleev, prices for flights to the United States will increase, but only slightly, since the choice of flights with transfers is very large. According to Biletix, more than 95% of U.S. air tickets sold through this system are now on connecting flights. Moreover, after connecting at European airports, Russian passengers most often fly to the United States on flights of foreign airlines.

According to Panteleev, if Aeroflot is de facto banned from flying to the United States, Russia's retaliatory measures could be very harsh - one option could be to revise the agreements under which American carriers use routes over Russian territory.

Difficulties associated with the distribution of “Arctic” routes have arisen before. In May, the US Department of Transportation ordered three Russian airlines to provide information about future flights to the States to verify the flights' compliance with American law. US authorities called this a response to the actions of Russia, which did not provide American cargo carriers with a corridor to cross its airspace.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on August 9 that retaliatory measures would be worked out “based on the actions that the American side will take.”

“There will be measures - we will make decisions based on what American legislators and political lobbyists come up with this time,” Zakharova said. - Everything is very simple. If [the US] comes up with nothing, we won’t do anything; if they come up with something, we’ll respond; if they come up with something extra, we’ll respond in the same spirit. No one has canceled the rules of the game.”

According to Panteleev, Russian aviation authorities in any case will not allow American airlines to replace Aeroflot on direct flights.

Photo: Vasin Lee / shutterstock.com

During the “Direct Line” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, many pressing questions were raised. First of all, Russians were concerned about problems related to the quality of life. But another important topic for the country’s residents has not remained in the shadows - civil aviation, the state of affairs in which affects the situation in Russia no less than the level of development of roads and railways.

An employee of the Rostov-on-Don airport, Alexander Serov, drew attention to the monstrous bias in favor of Moscow that has developed in the Russian air communication system: “Please tell me whether events will be planned that are aimed at expanding our intraregional route network to connect our districts, regions, regions with direct flights?

In response, Putin voiced the key reason for the existence of a balanced air communication system - preserving the unity of Russian territory. “Citizens should be able to travel in the regions without going through capital cities. You are absolutely right,” the president noted. At the same time, Putin stated that “in the 1990s and early 2000s, this network completely collapsed.” According to him, the authorities are now working to recreate normal air traffic between the regions at a “new base.”

"For Far East, For Eastern Siberia these problems are most acutely felt: the distances are large, and the population is not large enough to load large airliners. - Putin explained. - We have created seven state-owned enterprises that should organize these internal interregional transportations. This is the first. They are functioning, and I really hope what we will do next: expand their activities and number to other regions of the Russian Federation.”

At the same time, the state plans to revive the Il-114 project, a twin-engine turboprop aircraft designed by the Ilyushin Design Bureau, intended for operation local airlines. In July 2014, Putin instructed the government to think about organizing mass production of this machine. It was decided to create a modernized version of the Il-114, but a lack of funding is preventing us from finally resolving this issue and launching production of the aircraft. On Direct Line, the president promised that he would “reproach” the government for the situation with the Il-114.

Problems civil aviation The Russian Federation is reduced to one aspect, which was just voiced by Putin - the weak economy of interregional transportation. The state is forced to subsidize direct flights between cities and hard-to-reach settlements, otherwise the population simply will not be able to pay the ticket price (a similar situation has developed with electric trains). The reason is that local carriers sometimes do not have the appropriate aircraft (for example, Il-114), and they are forced to operate more expensive aircraft.

The organization of state-owned enterprises and subsidies are half measures. The solution will be the massive appearance of the Il-114 and other short- and medium-haul aircraft, including the MC-21. A lot of effort needs to be made to develop small aviation, both private and public. This will require changes to legislation and investment in the restoration of small airfields.

If the above measures are implemented, then in Russia there will be grounds for increased competition among airlines. This will reduce the burden on the state and improve the situation on the market. passenger transportation and possibly lead to lower ticket prices.

However, the story of the liquidation of Avianova and Transaero testifies to the wolfish rules that dominate the Russian aviation market. In this case, the relevant government agencies must monitor strict compliance with the law and rein in large players who are disadvantaged by competition from private companies and low-cost airlines.

Civil aviation went into a deep dive after the collapse of the USSR. Suffice it to say that in the Soviet Union there were 1.4 thousand airfields, and now there are about 200. In December 2017, the first airport since 1991 will open in Rostov-on-Don! At the same time, 96% of passenger transportation in the Russian Federation is carried out by foreign-made vessels. However, the state, despite the financial deficit, has every opportunity to improve the situation.

The foundation for positive changes is the stable mass demand for flights within the country, which has formed in last years. Russians are ready to pay for air tickets. This is evidenced by data from the Federal Air Transport Agency: despite the crisis, passenger traffic in the Russian Federation has not fallen.

Thus, in 2015, airlines (including foreign ones operating in Russia) transported 159.3 million people, and in 2016 - 159.6 million. The decrease in passenger traffic affected only international flights (from 54.1 million to 46.4 million people). Number of passengers flying domestic flights, grew by 7.6% to 113.1 million.

Of course, the increased demand for domestic transportation can be explained by the fall in incomes of Russians and the “closure” of Egypt and Turkey. Citizens began to abandon foreign holidays and business trips abroad in favor of domestic destinations. However, it is unwise to ignore the “capitalization” of such a large-scale demand for domestic flights.

If local or federal airlines receive the necessary aircraft and launch at least regular flights between cities located several hundred kilometers from each other, then the demand for them will be high. However, the state will most likely have to subsidize such transportation, at least at first.

Good initiatives can be buried by the existing industry management system. Several departments are responsible for the state of affairs in civil aviation: the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Rosaviation, the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) and Rostechnadzor. In this regard, it is advisable to use the Soviet experience by creating the Ministry of Civil Aviation. This will emphasize the priority of the development of civil aviation and will allow monitoring the implementation of assigned tasks.

Are Egyptians waiting for Russian tourists and how many Russians continue to vacation on the Egyptian coast of the Red Sea, getting there by roundabout routes?

Vladimir Putin. Photo: Mikhail Klimentyev/Reuters

On Monday, the Russian President in Cairo will discuss security issues in the Middle East with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. One of the topics of discussion will be the resumption of air traffic between the two countries, reports RBC.

According to the source of the publication in the Ministry of Transport, air travel between Russia and Egypt (though specifically to Cairo, and not to resort towns) may resume before New Year holidays. Another close to Russian Ministry transport source said that the head of this department, Maxim Sokolov, will also fly to Egypt on December 11.

Natalya Piletskaya guide from Hurghada “Now we are waiting for Vladimir Putin to appear on the 11th. We all know about this. We hope that at least the issue regarding air travel will be resolved. Of course, there are tourists. Ukraine flew and still flies. Belarus too. But this is not only insufficient, it is generally the minimum. This cannot be taken into account. The Germans are flying. A lot of China. All countries fly except ours. So we're really, really looking forward to it. We need Russians. Of course, you can’t go anywhere without them. Our main tourist flow is 60% from Russia. We are waiting for ours, we can’t go anywhere without them. There are not many who fly through Belarus. It is very expensive. All of Russia flies through Turkey. This is the very first option that our Russia uses. Tourists loved Egypt, so they fly, nothing stops them. But they fly through something: either through Greece, or even through Poland. But the main flow goes through Turkey, so Turkish Airlines Now they make very good money from us.”

A guide from Hurghada, Mohamed Amon, is also waiting for the Russians:

Mohamed Amon guide from Hurghada “We are waiting very hard, and for a long time. We will be very glad if air traffic resumes. We have been ready for this for a long time. We welcome all tourists who come from all over the world. Of course, compared to what we had before the cessation of air traffic between our two states, this, of course, is a great damage to our economy. In principle, tourists from Russia are now coming, but through other countries. But not in such quantities as it was before the cessation of air traffic.”

They come from Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia. Lots of Chinese. Wait Russian tourists The guide in Egypt, Mustafa Elwani, has already stopped:

Mustafa Elwani guide in Egypt "From different countries tourists are coming from all over the world. Lots of Chinese. Ukrainians also began to come more often. And travel agencies offer tours cheaper than before. I stopped waiting for a solution regarding Russian tourists; two years have already passed. But everything will pass someday, most likely after the end of the World Cup, which will be soon.”

At the same time, at the beginning of this week, the Association of Tour Operators of Russia reported that direct flights between the Russian Federation and Egypt are unlikely to resume next year.

At the same time, the Egyptian side hopes for a different outcome, since according to the results of the draw, the Russian and Egyptian national teams were placed in the same group and will play each other in St. Petersburg on June 19.

Meanwhile, a number of experts in the tourism industry do not rule out that Moscow will meet Cairo halfway and regular flights between the capitals of the two countries will be resumed from summer schedule next year. Or Russia may allow charter flights from Egypt with football fans.

A ban on flights from Russia to Egypt was introduced after the crash of a Kogalymavia airline plane over Sinai as a result of a terrorist attack. 224 people died in it.

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