The Ministry of Transport will reduce fees for aircraft maintenance in the regions

The Ministry of Transport will lower the toll rates for regional aircraft, which should help reduce the price of air tickets. But the shortfall in airport revenues will have to be compensated from the budget,

The Ministry of Transport has prepared an order to reduce air navigation and airport charges for servicing aircraft in the Russian regions, Deputy HEAD of the Department Dmitry Zverev said at a meeting of the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy, RBC correspondent reported.

“We discussed [the order] with business, now it is being discussed <...> in principle with all regions within the Siberian and Far Eastern federal districts,” the official said. So Zverev responded to the call of the head of Yakutia, Aisen Nikolaev (he spoke at the same meeting), to apply zero rates at the airports of the republic for the development of air transport in the region.

According to Nikolaev, now the share of airport services in the cost of a ticket for flights within the republic accounts for up to 20%, while for Moscow flights - no more than 2%. In many cases, these rates are prohibitively high - several times, and sometimes dozens of times higher than airport charges in the European part of RUSSIA, a representative of the unified Far Eastern airline Aurora told RBC.

“The republic’s proposal was to zero out the rates, but the order provides for 0.25 [of the current rates],” Zverev said, meaning that tariffs would be cut by two to four times (a coefficient of 0.5 is already applied to some aircraft). Until January 1, 2023, the order will be submitted for registration to the Ministry of Justice.

Who will be affected by the change

The current rules for the formation of tariffs and fees for servicing aircraft at airports and airspace were approved by the Ministry of Transport in July 2012. According to these rules, a factor of 0.25 applies to aircraft with a maximum takeoff weight of up to 5 tons. That is, it does not apply to the main aircraft flying on local and regional airlines: for example, 19-seat DHC-6 (5.6 tons ) and L-410 (6.6 tons), 30-seat Yak-40 (16.1 tons) and 50-seat An-24 (21.8 tons).

The draft order, among other things, provides for the application of such a reduction factor for aircraft with a take-off weight of up to 5.7 tons for four charges: for air navigation services on flight routes and in the airfield area, for takeoff and landing and ensuring aviation security, a source in the Ministry of Transport explained to RBC. According to another interlocutor in this department, carriers have also asked for lower fees for aircraft with heavier takeoff weights operating local (regional) flights. RBC sent inquiries to the press services of the Ministry of Transport and the Federal Air Transport Agency.

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Flights to small airports suspended in three Russian regions Business

In 2021, 2.6 million passengers flew on local airlines, which is 48.6% more than in 2020. “99.9% of the total volume of work on local airlines is carried out in four federal districts: Northwestern, Urals, Siberian and Far Eastern,” said Konstantin Sukhorebrik, head of Aurora, in an interview with RBC in early December. He pointed out that the reduction of airport charges could be an alternative to additional transportation subsidies. The cost of services for airlines is rising against the backdrop of an increase in the cost of maintaining the airworthiness of aircraft due to Western sanctions, adds Vladimir Nikiforov, CEO of Siberian Light Aviation (flies to airports in Siberia and the Far East, including on L-410 aircraft). This decision of the Ministry of Transport will allow the airline to become a little more attractive in terms of the cost of services, he said.

But airport taxes are one of the main sources of income for regional and local airports. If such a reduction factor is applied to additional types of aircraft, the amount of shortfall in income of the largest federal state-owned enterprise (FKP) Airports of the North (operator of 30 airfields in Yakutia and the Magadan Region) will amount to 250-300 million rubles during the year, its CEO Vadim told RBC Volkov. The reduction in the cost of a passenger ticket for the An-24 will be about 2.5-3%, that is, the impact of airport taxes on the price is insignificant, he believes. “In any case, shortfalls in income will have to be reimbursed from the appropriate level of the budget,” Volkov said. The press service of the Ministry of Finance reported that they had not received such proposals from the Ministry of Transport.