Nine Russian airlines have stopped flights in 2022. For four of them, Rosaviatsia suspended the validity of the operator’s certificate and completely canceled another.
“Kommersant,” writes about it. Over the previous 5 years in Russia, there were five cases of suspension of the work of local air carriers, which led to the cancellation of the operator’s certificate. This is the main document that allows the airline to fly.
These are the airlines SkyGates, “Kamchatka”, “Bistrolet”, “Skil”, “And Rostvertol Avia”, the Royal Flight charter company associated with the tour operator Coral Travel, the business operator “Sirius Aero” and two cargo carriers that are part of the Volga Group – Dnipro”. carriers – “Atran” and AirBridgeCargo.
In most cases, the suspension of flights is related to the sanctions introduced due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Thus, three certificates were stopped in 2022 directly due to sanctions – at the request of the carriers themselves.
For example, Kamchatka Airlines in the USA refused to buy three Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft. Two Boeing 747 a/c SkyGates, which ranked third in the volume of cargo transportation to the Russian Federation, are now operated in Azerbaijan by the affiliated Silk Way West Airlines.
St. Petersburg-based company “Bystrolet” planned to fly under the FlyFast brand on Hawker Beechcraft aircraft but lost its certificate due to their absence.
And Rostvertol Avia, a subsidiary of Rostec, was unable to use MI-2 helicopters due to problems with spare parts. In 2022, the company “Skil” from Kaliningrad, which is in the stage of bankruptcy, also lost its certificate, but “Rosaviatsia” banned it from using aircraft as early as 2021.
According to experts, Royal Flight, associated with Turkish tour operators and keeping only two planes in the Russian Federation, is unlikely to be able to return to the market.
According to Kommersant, there are currently 114 carriers in the Rosaviatsia registry, but two-thirds of passenger traffic is provided by the five largest airlines. According to experts, small regional carriers, which “will have to liquidate or go under the wing of larger competitors”, will leave the market in the future.