Amid a massive collapse in Russian air travel that has led to billions in losses and thousands of delayed flights, Putin has fired the transport minister.
Over 2,000 flights were cancelled and delayed in Russia over two days due to drone attacks. Airlines could suffer losses of 20 billion rubles. At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin began laying off members of the government.
This is reported by official Russian agencies and media.
Collapse at Russian airports – what are the losses
According to the Russian Ministry of Transport, on July 5, more than 250 flights were cancelled at Sheremetyevo, Pulkovo and Strigino airports (Nizhny Novgorod), and more than 270 were delayed. As of the evening of July 6, 354 flights were cancelled or delayed at Moscow and St. Petersburg airports.
According to Rosaviatsiya, 485 flights have been cancelled since July 5, almost 1,900 have been delayed , and another 88 flights have been sent to alternate airfields. The biggest problems have arisen at Pulkovo and Sheremetyevo airports.
During this time, according to the department, 43 thousand ticket refunds were processed, 94 thousand passengers were accommodated in hotels, 199 thousand vouchers for drinks and 155 thousand for food were issued.
The Russian publication Kommersant reported that the collapse of air traffic due to the drone strikes on July 5-6 could cost Russian airlines around 20 billion rubles (more than $250 million) in just those two days. Such calculations were provided by interviewed experts and sources in the airlines.
Situation at Russian airports on July 7
As of today, normal air traffic has not yet been restored. Thus, on the morning of July 7, more than 100 flights were delayed in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and dozens more were cancelled. St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport warned that there may be cases of baggage not being delivered to destination airports due to the high load on the systems.
Putin Fires Transport Minister
Against this backdrop, Putin unexpectedly fired Transport Minister Roman Starovoit on July 7, who had served in the position for just over a year. No reasons were given for the dismissal.
The Kremlin announced that Andrei Nikitin, the former governor of the Novgorod region, has been appointed acting Minister of Transport.
Answering a question about the sudden dismissal of Starovoit and the quick appointment of Nikitin, the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov stated:
“In the opinion of the President, Andrei Nikitin’s professional qualities and experience will best contribute to the fulfillment of the tasks of this extremely important department.”
When asked by journalists whether the dismissal meant that Putin had lost confidence in Starovoit because of the situation in Kursk, where the latter was governor, Peskov replied:
“They talk about a loss of trust when there is a wording about a loss of trust. There is no such wording in this decree.”
Reuters, citing two anonymous sources in the transport industry, reported that plans to replace Starovoit with Nikitin were being considered even before the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg in June. A third source in the industry noted that Starovoit's resignation had been under consideration for several months and was not related to transport, but to corruption scandals in Kursk.
Let us recall that the aviation collapse in Russia began on July 5. Then, due to the threat of a drone attack, the work of airports was paralyzed, passengers were kept in planes for hours.
