The program of "flat" air fares may affect nine cities

Aeroflot, together with the Ministry of Transport, will work on expanding "flat" fixed—price tariffs to nine cities in the Far Eastern Federal District - the list will include four new destinations. Vladimir Putin gave such an order on April 7 at a meeting with the head of the company, Sergey Alexandrovsky. Currently, such tickets are available only in five cities — Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Magadan.

What was discussed at the meeting

The Aeroflot Group (consisting of three airlines — Aeroflot, Pobeda and Rossiya) flew 55 million passengers in 2024. This is 17% more than in 2023. Of these, 43 million were transported on the domestic market, which is 13% more than in the previous year. There are 33% more passengers on international lines, which is 12 million passengers. Vladimir Putin called such growth rates of transportation good.

Aeroflot has also increased flights to tourist destinations by 10% in 2024 to 23 million people. Sergey Alexandrovsky noted that among the leaders in passenger traffic are flights to St. Petersburg, Sochi and Kaliningrad. In terms of growth rates, Gorno—Altaysk (+33%), Kaliningrad (+23%) and Vladivostok (+20%) are in the top. Passenger traffic has increased by 70% over the past five years on flights to Makhachkala and Murmansk.

The issue of "flat" tariffs (with a fixed price that does not depend on the season and is valid throughout the year) was discussed separately. Last year, the group transported 1.4 million passengers on "flat" fares. Currently, they fly to Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Magadan. Sergei Alexandrovsky proposed extending them to Blagoveshchensk, Anadyr, Yakutsk and Ulan-Ude. Vladimir Putin asked to finalize the initiative with the Ministry of Transport. "We propose to increase the minimum number of available seats on a flat fare to 1.5 million passengers, extend the program to nine cities, but at the same time allow the possibility of using commercial fares in these directions," said Sergey Alexandrovsky.

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How will the workload of pilots and flight attendants change and what risks do the unions see in this?

Aeroflot's flight safety level has almost reached 100% in 2024. The "flight hours" per incident have also reached high values, which is 5,730 hours per incident. In 2024, Aeroflot operated 349 aircraft, the same as in 2023. In total, the group operated flights on 280 routes, and 36 new destinations were introduced.

Aeroflot's passenger traffic in the Chinese market has tripled, reaching 800,000 passengers, the head of the airline said. In total, Aeroflot operated flights to 20 countries: six CIS countries, seven in the Asian region, five in the Middle East and Africa, as well as Turkey and Cuba.