A paradoxical situation has developed on the Russian market: international flights are sometimes cheaper than long-distance flights. The reason was the lack of budget-format carrier companies that could provide the opportunity to fly at a low cost.
Domestic carrier companies specializing in low-cost transportation could not stay in this market. In October 2011, the Sky Express company ceased its activities, and in April 2012 it left the Russian aviation market "Avianova", due to a lack of financial resources, it was declared bankrupt. Since then, domestic ticket prices have more than doubled. For example, the cost of a ticket to Rostov-on-Don increased from 2000 to 5500 rubles. The situation that arose caused a great public outcry, and it was decided to attract foreign air carriers to domestic Russian transportation.
A preliminary agreement with two low-cost airlines has already been reached, but the Ministry of Transport has not yet announced their names. It is only known that one of the companies is from South Asia, and the other is from Europe. The condition for these companies to enter the Russian market was the possibility of independent choice of flight directions.
Flights on the low cost system have long been popular and in demand on the world market; more than a hundred airlines operate in this segment. Thanks to the sale of tickets via the Internet, the use of the same type of inexpensive planes, the lack of on-board service and work with secondary, remote from the city, airports, they can reduce ticket prices several times. The appearance of low-cost airlines on the Russian market will lead to the development of tourism within the country and an increase in the number of traffic.
Whether these low-cost airlines will remain on the Russian air transportation market for a long time will largely depend on the development of airports and administrative barriers. For example, problems may arise if the air carrier's equipment does not meet Russian standards. Great difficulties are foreseen due to the absence of secondary airports near large cities, the Moscow authorities have already thought about this problem. Servicing in large transport hubs is very expensive, which is why Russian budget companies went bankrupt. The conditions of the Russian aviation market are rather unfavorable to competitors, with large airlines striving for monopoly.
