An increase in airfare prices in 2023 “cannot be avoided”. This is how the general director of Aeroflot, Sergei Aleksandrovsky, upset the tourists: in his interview with RBC, he said that the cost of tickets for flights across Russia has decreased this year, but next year prices will rise at least by the level of inflation. True, at the same time, given the low purchasing power of the population, carriers will also not be able to significantly raise prices.
As Mr. Aleksandrovsky explained, in its budget forecasts, the carrier focuses on inflation indicators from the Ministry of Economic Development – and the current forecast of the ministry for 2023 is 5.5%. The expert said that this year the average level of transportation tariffs remained the same as in the previous two years, when air transportation was in a reduced mode due to covid. By 2019, moreover, the level of tariffs fell by 6.5%. At the same time, according to the report of the head of the Ministry of Transport Vitaly Savelyev at a government meeting, the price level is in fact forcibly kept. For example, a summer surge in prices was avoided thanks to serious state support. At the same time, the operating costs of airlines increased – the same cost of kerosene increased by more than 45%.
At the same time, as the head of Aeroflot noted, in theory, airlines can transfer all additional costs incurred to passengers. However, in practice this will not work due to the limited purchasing power of the population. “According to the results of the third quarter, according to Rosstat, the real incomes of the population decreased by 3.4% compared to the same period last year. Under these conditions, we cannot increase the cost of tickets by 20-30%, then we will have to seriously reduce the volume of traffic.” – added Mr. Aleksandrovsky.
At the same time, we would like to note separately that we are talking about air transportation within Russia. On international flights, the ticket price has seriously increased and will continue to increase. “But this is a separate story, connected more with a limited offer of holidays abroad. Our task is to maintain the availability of flights primarily on the domestic market,” emphasized the head of Aeroflot.
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