Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport denied the claims made by the public prosecution authorities for transportation; the authorities said in their letter as of January 18, 2010 that the airport violated the rules of passenger insurance.

Sverdlovsk Region’s public prosecution authorities for transportation insist the airport’s booking offices violated the rights of their customers by making them pay for the accident insurance alongside with the ticket to Moscow. When tickets were sold at the airport’s terminal A, the passengers were not explained that the insurance was optional. This actually violates the federal regulations, as the money for the insurance was not given voluntarily but was charged in a mandatory way.

Now the airport insists the insurance agreements are only signed voluntarily, as the rules are written out on the back of the insurance policies the customers were given upon signing the agreement.

‘Our booking office staff have been explained once again that they need to inform the passengers about the terms and procedures of this optional accident insurance and provide them with information about our insurer,’ Koltsovo Airport’s Strategic Communications Director Yulia Fedotova said to UrBC.

‘Koltsovo Airport did not have face administrative liability, so the public has no grounds for complaining about the court’s decision,’ she added.

According to the airport’s representatives, the insurance cost about 200 for a two-way ticket.