On January 15, the West Siberian Transport Prosecutor’s Office reported that S7 Airlines was fined 30,000 rubles for denying transportation due to overbooking to passengers departing from Novosibirsk airport.
Overbooking is a situation when an airline sells more tickets for a flight than there are seats on the plane. The airlines explain the motivation for such overselling by the fact that a small part of passengers do not show up for the flight, and a certain number of seats may turn out to be empty. According to international statistics, on average up to 10-15% of passengers do not show up for a flight.
However, if there are more passengers than seats on the flight, the airline has to deny transportation to someone. As a rule, these are those who are among the last to check-in. Overbooking is not prohibited in Russia, but it is not legally regulated. This means that airlines are not obliged to pay compensation to passengers who are denied boarding due to overbooking.
Recently, there have been increasing calls for the legalization of ticket overselling and the establishment of clear rules for the payment of compensation to affected passengers. Proponents of legalization argue that this will allow airlines to lower ticket prices and increase their profits. In addition, they believe that compensation to passengers should be fair and commensurate with the inconvenience suffered.
Opponents of legalizing overbooking argue that it will lead to an increase in denied boarding and violation of passengers’ rights. They believe airlines should be held accountable for their actions up to and including penalties.
“We are in favor of creating a compensation mechanism that would protect the interests of air passengers in case of overbooking. Now it is not prohibited, but it is not legally regulated, as a result passengers get nothing from airlines. There should be clear and understandable rules for everyone. World experience shows that often, by agreement of the parties, in case of overbooking, passengers decide to postpone the flight, as airlines pay them live money,” believes the vice-president of the Russian Union of Travel Industry Dmitry Gorin.
Commenting on the situation with the fine imposed for overbooking on S7 airline, he said that the adoption of such rules is in the interests of Russian consumers: in many countries, a passenger faced with overbooking receives compensation from 400 to 800 euros plus he is provided with a hotel while waiting for the next flight.
In 2015, the Ministry of Transport proposed a relevant draft law, but eventually abandoned the initiative, and the document was reduced to the responsibility of airlines for overbooking and fines for its application. The government did not support the project and proposed to solve the problem through amendments to the Air Code, which provided for compensation to passengers when the terms of the contract are changed at the initiative of the carrier.
Aeroflot head Sergei Alexandrovsky believes that the introduction of overbooking in Russia will allow airlines to bring this practice out of the gray zone and establish clear rules for its application. In September 2023, he told journalists that the carrier, together with the Ministry of Transportation, is working on the relevant draft regulations.
