Russian transport ministry says air service to China may drop by up to 70% — RBC
MOSCOW, February 27. /TASS/. Passenger air service to China may drop by 60-70% compared with pre-pandemic levels due to problems with the registration of Russian aircraft and the risk of their impoundment, RBC business daily wrote on Monday citing a letter by Deputy Transport Minister Valentin Ivanov sent to President of the Opora Rossii business association Alexander Kalinin on February 16.
The legitimacy of the letter was confirmed to the publication by a representative of the association.
Traffic between Russia and China may go down due to the lack of guarantees from Beijing that it will not detain jets at the request of third countries (due to Western sanctions), as well as the ban on flights to China of aircraft with dual registration (concurrently in Russia, the Bermudas and in Ireland), Ivanov explained. As a result, passenger flow in this direction may decrease to 0.9-1.2 mln people in 2023, he added.
However, if air service is available, including from Russian regions, the passenger flow between the countries may total 5 mln people, Vice President of Opora Rossii Gleb Kinder told RBC, adding however, that currently flights to China are performed mainly from Moscow and several Far Eastern and Siberian cities, which is "very little." He also noted that an increase in air transportation service with China contributes to the development of business, as well as tourism.
In 2019, Russian airlines carried almost 3 mln people on routes between China and Russia. The People’s Republic of China was one of the top ten most popular countries for Russian carriers on this measure, the newspaper wrote.
Photo by Sergei Bobylev/TASS
