RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT PREPARED TO SUPPORT NATIONAL AIR COMPANIES

YEREVAN, December 22. /ARKA/. The Russian government will secure
loans to national air carriers and will subsidize domestic air routes,
vice-premier Arkady Dvorkovich said.

Total support will amount to several hundred million to a couple
of billion rubles, according to him. Right now it is only UTair
and Trasnaero that said they have problems, Dvorkovich said in his
interview to Vedomosti, as cited by RBC.

Providing securities on loans will raise banks’ interests in settling
the problems, he said.

The second tool, subsidies on domestic flights will help increase
number of routes and make them loss-free for companies, according
to Dvorkovich.

The costs of this support will not be high, he said. It will be
required from the subsidized companies to ensure loss-free operations,
within several months the latest, he said.

According to December 18 reports, Utair intends to reduce its fleet
from 117 down to 71 aircraft and pay off part of its debts worth a
total of 167.8 billion rubles. -0–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress