The damage to airlines due to postponement and disruption of flights for several days in July amounted to up to 20 billion rubles.
The collapse in air traffic on July 5-6 may cost airlines about 20 billion rubles. The costs only because of flight cancelations during the first day of the large-scale disruption at three airports are estimated at 4-6 billion rubles. Passenger associations insist on the creation of clear regulations for handling emergency situations on the principle of a single window. Accommodation and food, experts believe, should be provided by airports at the expense of airlines, while small carriers need indirect measures of state support to avoid bankruptcy.
Transportation collapse will cost Russian airlines several tens of billions of rubles just for the first two days, experts and sources in airlines interviewed by Kommersant have calculated. According to the Ministry of Transportation, on July 5, more than 250 flights were canceled in Sheremetyevo, Pulkovo and Strigino (Nizhny Novgorod), and more than 270 flights were delayed. As of 18:00 on July 6, 171, 90 and 26 flights were canceled at Sheremetyevo, Pulkovo and Strigino, while 56, 37 and 13 flights were delayed for more than two hours, respectively. Estimates for other airports where temporary restrictions were imposed, as well as consolidated data for the country are not yet available. The Ministry of Transportation, Rosaviatsia, major airports and the airlines interviewed refrained from additional comments.
Costs of airlines
According to preliminary estimates, the airline can lose 15-23 million rubles, depending on the direction, the founder of the service RunAvia Andrey Patrakov calculated for “Kommersant” founder of the service RunAvia Andrey Patrakov. This amount includes the airline’s costs for airport services at average tariffs, crew and fuel costs, as well as lost revenue.
Thus, only the first day of flight cancellations at three airports cost airlines, according to calculations based on public data, at least 3.9-5.9 billion rubles. Kommersant’s interlocutors in two major airlines confirmed the correctness of the calculations. A source in another company specified that the departure of one aircraft to an alternate airfield costs on average 1.5-2 million rubles for four hours.
Mr. Patrakov estimates the cost of a delayed flight (delay of more than 15 minutes) of a B737 at about 1.5 million rubles, excluding passenger service costs.
The volume of additional costs of airlines due to fan failures of the schedule throughout the country for a day can reach an average of 20 billion rubles, estimates an expert of EXPO.UAV Dmitry Datsykov. According to him, to correctly assess the damage from the introduction of the “Cover” plan and disruptions in mobile Internet, it is necessary to take into account the losses of passengers who do not have time for connecting flights and final destination points, losses of cab services and other related areas. The size of such indirect losses in three regions alone may amount to several tens of billions, the expert says.
Support for passengers and carriers
Kirill Yankov, Chairman of the Passengers Union, notes that there have been no mass appeals, as during the failures of May 6-9, when the union recorded dozens of complaints. “It seems that the airlines have learned lessons from the May failures,” he says. Complaints, according to Mr. Yankov, were sporadic and came mainly from Sheremetyevo and Pulkovo, as the largest number of flights were postponed on the Moscow-St. Petersburg line.
Part of the decrease in the number of complaints may be due to the unstable operation of cell phone networks at airports over the weekend.
Passengers, continues Kirill Yankov, turned when they could not find airline representatives or did not hear announcements about vouchers for meals or hotel accommodation. In this regard, he says, consideration should be given to adjusting the Federal Aviation Regulations (FAP-82) and creating clear emergency regulations for airports and carriers to coordinate passengers on a one-stop-shop basis. At Sheremetyevo and Pulkovo, the information services worked properly, Mr. Yankov stresses, but their efforts may not be enough in such mass disruptions. Particularly clear instructions, he says, are needed for those airports, on whose territories representatives of specific airlines do not work, and for cases when an airline flies to an alternate airfield with which it has no contract.
According to Ilya Zotov, head of the All-Russian Passengers Association (OPA), after the May events, some passengers in the summer period “accepted the situation and did not take any action, relying only on refunds”. Nevertheless, Mr. Zotov believes that regulators should develop a clear instruction for such situations with a description of the mechanism of automated ticket refunds, including non-refundable fares, and clear requirements for passenger service. As the expert explains, today FAP-82 does not contain clear requirements for catering and carriers usually provide vouchers for the most inexpensive complex meals, most often only for “sandwiches and tea”.
The obligation to provide accommodation in hotels in cases of large-scale disruptions should be transferred to airports, according to the OOP.
Airlines are burdened with the reorganization of route networks and ticket refunds, but carriers could compensate airports for all accommodation costs afterwards, Ilya Zotov explains. He adds that for small airlines in case of repetition of such situations additional costs may become unaffordable, so it is advisable to consider tax benefits or other measures of indirect state support to avoid bankruptcy. In order to resolve all such situations, a single task force should be responsible for handling large-scale failures to the same standard, the head of the PLO concludes.
Tourists are holding on to their vacations
There has been no large-scale cancelation of tours yet, says Dmitry Gorin, vice-president of the Russian Union of Travel Industry (RST). Nevertheless, he said, tour operators also have to bear additional costs. According to him, airlines due to the sharp increase in delays do not always have time to provide accommodation and meals for passengers, in some cases there is not enough room stock, and tour operators take it upon themselves, and also bear the cost of rebooking hotels and tours. There is no consolidated data yet, preliminary for July 5-6 the costs may amount to several tens of millions of rubles, believes Mr. Gorin. Any fan delays lead to a shift of the schedule for the next two or three days, which complicates the situation and can multiply the costs of tour operators.
The events with the closure of airspace due to the conflict between Iran and Israel cost tour operators 300 million rubles in additional costs. In this regard, in June PCT appealed to the Ministry of Economy with a request to reduce the amount of deductions to the Personal Liability Fund for tour operators from 1% of turnover for each quarter to 0.25%. There has been no response so far, says Dmitry Gorin. In case of recurrence of fan delays, he believes, indirect support for the industry is necessary by analogy with the mechanisms of assistance during a pandemic.