Flying to Crimea Now Cheaper than to Turkey
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The airlines that are going to participate in the ‘Crimean’ subsidizing program have already given to understand that the planned tariffs and subsidies were not enough to make the economics of flights profitable, or at least for them to break even. Oleg Panteleev, Head of Aviaport’s analytical service, told TRN about it while commenting on the topic.
He says that carriers will charge maximum price for the already sought-after flights, all the while offering reduced-price tickets for flights with the fewest number of passengers.
Panteleev underscored that the main value of the subsidizing program consisted in flights being organized from cities where there used to be no flights to Simferopol.
The expert also added that the planned abolition of VAT on domestic flights to Crimea and Sevastopol would not affect the ticket prices, since this tax was only levied on international flights, which is what Crimean flights were regarded as.
By way of subsidizing flights to Crimea the government wants to lower ticket prices to the point where they will be comparable to the prices of flights to Bulgaria and Turkey. General Director of Pegas Touristik Anna Podgornaya says that if we compare current prices of flights from Samara and Irkutsk to Crimea and Turkey, Russian destinations will be less expensive; however, flight price is but one of the elements that make up a tour package. Podgornaya says that, with the government maintaining that the price of a two-week holiday on the peninsula should not exceed 24-30 thousand rubles ($693-867), the average price of a tour package to Turkey is lower than that of a Crimean tour package.
“Crimean accommodation facilities are not the ones to blame for their prices being higher than those in Turkish hotels,” she said. “High maintenance costs of their business prevent them from lowering prices. The facilities are in need of modernization, which cannot be carried out without investments.”
The Rosaviatsiya Federal Air Transport Agency has recently authorized a list of 8 airlines that will participate in the program of subsidizing flights from 17 Russian cities to Crimea and Sevastopol. The program will last from June 1 through October 31.
The list includes Ak Bars Aero, Alrosa Mirny Air Enterprise, Nordavia, Red Wings, S7 Airlines, Ural Airlines, Yakutia Airlines and Yamal Airlines.
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