The Transportation Ministry has announced plans to subsidize regional airlines that will result in savings of up to 50 percent on some internal routes.
The subsidies will cost the federal budget 750 million rubles ($24 million) a year for the next four years, 450 million rubles of which will be invested in the Northwestern, Urals, Siberian and Far Eastern federal districts, Vedomosti reported Tuesday, citing Deputy Transportation Minister Valery Okulov.
In addition, from next year federal and regional authorities will subsidize 100 routes for which there is no alternative method of transportation, resulting in a drop in fare prices of between 35 and 50 percent, Okulov said, adding that the subsidies would run until 2020.
Aeroflot, which runs around 32.5 percent of all internal routes, and UTair, which runs 16.6 percent, told Vedomosti that they would claim the subsidies for existing routes.
But the carriers said they would decide whether to open new routes based on profitability, not the level of state subsidies.
When then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin first raised the possibility of such subsidies in January, he estimated that 300,000 people a year would be able to buy discounted tickets.
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