OREANDA-NEWS The government has expanded subsidies for air travel for residents of the Far East and Russians from other regions. This was reported on the website of the Cabinet, the Cabinet resolution was prepared by the Ministry of transport.

Now the authorities will subsidize air transportation all year round, and not for a certain time - from March to December. The government has also expanded the list of social categories of citizens falling under the subsidies — now they will be able to take advantage of large families.

Under the current rules right to purchase tickets at a special rate available to citizens over the age of 23 years, citizens over the age of 60 years for men and over 55 for women, citizens with disabilities of the first group of any age and his or her companion and the person accompanying a disabled child, and disabled from childhood of the second or third group.

In addition, the list of subsidized air transportation routes increased from 73 to 152, the maximum length of subsidized routes also increased — up to 3 thousand km in the far East and Siberian Federal districts and up to 1.5 thousand km in the rest.

The government has also established an increase factor for tariffs for transportation in the far Eastern district and the Arctic zone, thus, the tariff increased by 1.25 times.

In October, the Federal air transport Agency announced an increase in the duration of the program of subsidizing passenger air travel to the Crimea, Kaliningrad and the Far East.

According to the Federal air transport Agency, from March to October 2018, airlines receiving subsidies from the state (Aeroflot, Ural airlines, S7 and others), transported 472 thousand people at reduced rates, of which 346 thousand went to the far East, 83 thousand to Simferopol and 43 thousand to Kaliningrad.