Following a working trip to the Siberian and Far Eastern Federal Districts, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin gave a number of instructions to relevant ministries and agencies on the development of air transport and aircraft construction.
The head of the government instructed to provide in the budget for the next three years funds in the amount of 1.76 billion rubles annually to subsidize air passenger transportation on socially important routes of the Far Eastern Federal District, which are carried out by a single Far Eastern airline Aurora.
Thanks to the socially important transportation program, air travel between the regions of the Far Eastern Federal District has become more convenient. The largest cities of Transbaikalia – Chita and Ulan-Ude – are connected with Vladivostok and Khabarovsk by regular flights. Small settlements that were recently almost inaccessible for travel, such as Severo-Kurilsk on Paramushir Island, became connected to major airports with daily scheduled flights in 2022. Previously, to get from Anadyr in Chukotka to neighboring Kamchatka, it took two days to fly via Moscow and at least 75 thousand rubles. Today there is a direct air route Anadyr – Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky: the duration is a little more than four hours, the ticket costs 7.5 thousand rubles, according to the website of the Russian government.
Currently, the fleet of Aurora Airlines includes 147 aircraft of 17 different types. In order to ensure the route network development plans in the coming years, the fleet of the unified Far Eastern airline will be updated with new domestically produced aircraft for all segments of the airline’s route network.
Another assignment from the transportation and aircraft-building block is related to the production and purchase of a light multipurpose airplane LMS-901 Baikal. By September 25, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry for Development of the Russian Far East, together with other interested organizations, should submit proposals on reducing the cost of aircraft construction, reducing leasing payments and the possibility of reducing airport charges for socially important transportation in the Far East.
One of the instructions concerns the development and start of production of a light single-engine helicopter. The Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Transport and Rosaviatsia together with Rostec State Corporation will be in charge of this task. The agencies will analyze the needs of the domestic market, as well as make proposals on the timing of such a project, indicating the volume and sources of funding. The work should be completed by mid-October.
