Subsidized Russian Far East routes fly more than 300K pax

Russian airlines have carried 306,000 passengers since spring on routes between the Russian Far East and other parts of the country under a government subsidy program, according to Russian figures released this week.

The current subsidy program runs from April 1 through Oct. 31 and applies to destinations in the extreme eastern parts of Russia, between Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean. Eleven Russian airlines --  Aeroflot, Transaero, Yakutia, Alrosa, UTair,VIM Avia, Ural Airlines, OrenAir, S7 Airlines, Ikar and NordStar -- are part of the program, and are flying a total of 44 routes between 29 cities in eight federal regions of the country.

According to figures released Aug. 24 by Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviatsia, Russia has so far this year spent RUB2.072 billion ($30.4 million) on subsidizing these operations -- 61% of the program’s  RUB 3.372 billion budget.

Russian authorities first began a Far East subsidy program in 2009.