Airlines ordered to free up seats on military flights

Russian airlines were obliged to remove civilian passengers from the flight, freeing up seats for participants in the war with Ukraine who are flying on vacation or returning to their post, writes Baza.

The carriers were informed about this at the meeting in Rosaviatsiya, which was attended by Aeroflot, S7, Ural Airlines, Utair, Rossiya and Nordwind. ANDthe airlines refused, citing the unlawfulness of such actions.

Finally a compromise was found. Now the carriers will block five sites for military fighting in Ukraine. If tickets are not collected 12 hours before departure, they will be put up for public sale.

Airlines have also been asked not to pay attention to the condition of combatants’ passports and military tickets, as these documents are often badly damaged. Carriers have redirected this issue to transport security.

In April, Izvestia wrote that Russian airlines would be required to book five or six military seats on all flights in the 2023 summer season, citing the order of Vladimir Poteshkin, deputy head of the Federal Air Transport Agency.

“In the current conditions, we believe that assistance in organizing the transport of this category of passengers will be a significant contribution of the aviation business to support the current air defense,” the ministry’s press service noted.

According to a source in the Ministry of Defense, the need for such measures was due to the fact that due to increased demand, the military had to buy tickets weeks and even months before the start of the holidays, and they could not book flights suitable for them under such conditions.

The airlines pointed to the risk of loss of income due to the possible delays for flights by war participants. One of the interlocutors said that the authorities did not raise the issue of compensation for carriers in such cases.

If one or two participants in the war do not arrive by plane, with an average ticket price of about 15 thousand rubles, the airline will lose 300-700 million rubles a month, calculated Elena Sakhnova, an analyst at My Investments.