The airline companies Ak Bars Aero and Grozny Avia, which have launched direct summer flights from Tatarstan to the capital of the Crimea, are unhappy with the amount of the subsidies that the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) offers on this route, the RBK publication reports.
According to the proposed subsidies, a ticket from Kazan to Simferopol should cost RUB 4,400 (USD 124), including subsidies, instead of the RUB 7,000-8,000 (USD 197-225) that the airline companies planned to set. The airline companies are hoping for that the tariffs will be raised because it will be unprofitable for them to fly otherwise.
"The cost of a ticket for a direct flight from Simferopol to Kazan is half the cost we calculated based on the experience from last year. RUB 4,400 - I cannot stand such a tariff policy! It must be said that we were promised other conditions: it was announced that the Crimea would become a special economic zone with preferential taxation and preferences for airlines. Honestly, I was hoping for this,” said Grozny Avia’s Commercial Director Sergei Petrov.
Grozny Avia has applied for three flights per week from the capital of Tatarstan from the end of May, using a 100-seat Yak-42 airplane, while Ak Bars Aero plans two weekly flights from Kazan and one from the Bigishevo airport in Nizhnekamsk from the beginning of June, using a 50-seat CRJ-200 aircraft.
Rosaviatsiya announced draft rules on federal subsidies for air transport to Simferopol from 16 Russian cities on 7 April.
