Russia: Price of Air Travel Up 24% Since January

11 September 2019 (09:07)

UrBC, Moscow, September 10, 2019. The price of an economy class plane ticket has gone up by 24.1% on average on the Russian market since January 1, 2019, Izvestia refers to Rosstat as indicating.

According to Rosstat, this is the eleven-year high since the recession-hit year 2008 in terms of air travel price increase (prices went up by 24.1% in 2008 as well). In the years in between, price increases fluctuated between 2% and 19% during the January-August span. At the same time, the price of an economy class ticket per every 1,000 km rose by 18.3% in August 2019 against August 2018.

Rosstat explains the airplane ticket prices always peak in August and then keep going down till December.

Senior Expert at Higher School of Economics’ Institute of Transport Economics and Transport Policy Studies (ITETPS) Fyodor Borissov says the price increase in the economy travel segment has to do with the airline’s growing overheads and last year’s drastic increase in the price of fuel.

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service now keeps an eye on the jet fuel prices following the airlines’ complaints, the agency’s press service informed Izvestia. The FAS did admit jet fuel prices were an issue and said steps would be taken to deal with it.

The Transport Ministry, in its turn, says the ticket price increase should not exceed the inflation parameters and intends to discuss a set of new price control measures with all the parties concerned.


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