OREANDA-NEWS  According to the results of 2022, the record support of Russian airlines will be significantly reduced, while they are tasked with increasing passenger traffic. Kommersant writes about this with reference to sources in the Ministry of Transport.

If in the past period carriers received 100 billion rubles from the budget, now the aid is being cut to 25 billion. Earlier, the Ministry of Transport expected that the volume of subsidies would be doubled, but these hopes are no longer there.

The day before, on January 24, the head of the department, Vitaly Saveliev, explained such a significant drop in support by the fact that airlines bought part of the aircraft from leasing and can earn on their own. According to him, it is supposed to "reduce the amount of subsidies requested in proportion to the number of aircraft purchased."

The interlocutors of the publication disagreed on what exactly these words mean. Either the carriers that bought the liners in 2022 will lose subsidies, or the distribution will go in a different way. Nevertheless, the majority of respondents believe that the first option looks doubtful, since it discriminates against companies that bought planes at their own expense without resorting to state support tools. At the same time, transport analyst Elena Sakhnova suggested that companies with their own fleet will be able to earn on international flights, which will reduce the need for assistance.

There is also a discrepancy regarding the dynamics of passenger traffic. The Ministry of Transport expects an increase from 95 million people to 101 million, and the figure is called understated for reinsurance. But industry sources consider the plan hardly feasible.