Since February 2022, a number of airports, including Simferopol Airport, in some central and southern regions of Russia have been temporarily closed for security reasons. More than RUB 3.4 billion has been allocated from the federal budget in 2023 to support the Crimean airport for partial reimbursement of expenses, as well as to maintain staff and the ability to resume servicing civil aircraft when flight restrictions are lifted.
“State subsidies for partial reimbursement of expenses of Simferopol airport in 2023 amounted to more than 3 billion 400 million rubles, said in the reports of Simferopol International Airport LLC.” “A year earlier the volume of such support was at the level of 2 billion 700 million rubles,” reports “Interfax”.
In addition to Simferopol, airports in Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar, Anapa, Gelendzhik, Elista, Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk and Voronezh are temporarily closed. In order to support the financial situation of these airports, they receive subsidies to partially compensate for the costs of core operations and interest payments on loan agreements or loans.
In 2022, the state allocated about 7 billion roubles to all airports where operations were suspended; in 2023, the amount of subsidies was more than 5 billion roubles. In December 2023, an additional 3.3 billion roubles were allocated to closed airports from the government’s reserve fund. These funds are intended for partial compensation of their expenses for ordinary activities and payment of interest on credit or loan agreements for August – November 2023.
In 2021, Simferopol airport served a record 6.83 million people, 48 per cent more than in 2020 and 33 per cent more than in 2019. This is the highest number of passengers among other closed airports – Simferopol was followed by Krasnodar’s Pashkovsky airport, which served 5 million people in 2021.
