Russian airlines could carry 103 mln passengers in 2023 - Rosaviatsia

MOSCOW. Oct 20 (Interfax) - Russian airlines are expected to carry 103 million passengers in 2023, deputy head of the Federal Agency for Air Transport (Rosaviatsia) Vladimir Poteshkin said during a roundtable on the development of regional air traffic at the Federation Council on Thursday.

"The planned amount of funds to be allocated from the federal budget to implement the subsidy program [in 2023] will be kept at the level of this year - that's approximately 27.5 billion rubles. [...] In a similar vein, there are plans to extend the subsidy program for Russian airlines to perform domestic, including local, carriage within the framework of government resolution No. 761 in 2023," Poteshkin said.

"The government support measures enumerated will contribute to achieving the carriage figures for 2023, as has already been said, traffic volumes have already been determined for up to 2030 in the strategy, and accordingly, the plan for 2023 is 103 million passengers," he said.

According to the baseline scenario for the development of the air transport industry up to 2030, approved by the government in June, Russian airlines will carry 101.2 million passengers in 2023, including 91.1 million on domestic routes and 10.1 million on international ones.

The passenger traffic of Russian airlines will total 100 million passengers in 2022, down 10% from 2021, while 128 million passengers were carried by Russian airlines in 2019, the Russian Transport Ministry said earlier.