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Economy and Business, Russia

Ticket window. Photo from lenta.ru

Terrorist attack at airport blows up airfare

Strengthening security at airports can significantly affect the cost of flights and, consequently, airfare... According to a recent decree of the Ministry of Transport, from now on, Rosaviatsia (Federal Air Transport Agency), while admitting the airlines to charter routes, should be guided by the capacity of airports. In order not to create long lines at the frames of the metal detectors and not to oversaturate the airports, it has been decided to cut down some routes. For passengers, improved safety is sure to backfire with a loss of not only time, but money as well. Carriers, who will have to part with charters, will most likely want to compensate the losses by incorporating them into the price of tickets on scheduled flights.
 
The decline in passenger numbers flying charter routes will have the hardest impact on the Domodedovo airport in Moscow. According to the representatives of the airport, in view of average daily passenger traffic of 65 thousand people, they will have to install 100 screeners at the airport and bring some 200 policemen to operate them. Considering that the Domodedovo airport has only five entrances, the procedure of screening passengers may take more than an hour. Therefore, reducing the number of charter flights is a least-evil solution. Fewer flights means less people.
 
At the same time, there will also be problems at the Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo airports, where there are 15 and 20 entrances and screeners, respectively. "Even in these circumstances, subject to screening of each passenger within a minute, we will not succeed to let passengers in without queues. So all the Moscow airports will have to temper their appetites, especially that Moscow's Vnukovo is going to be partially closed for reconstruction of the runway and in any case will reduce its traffic", said a representative of one of the airlines to the Kommersant daily.
 
Already now we can see that the Siberia airline has started slowly, but surely to raise the cost of flights. For example, the cost of seat blocks for tour operators from Russia to Bulgaria went up by 30% compared to last year to reach $280 per ticket.
 
On February 7, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a decree introducing the "Rules of protection of airports and related infrastructures” and defining the areas of responsibility of police and aviation security services (ASS). Since that time, airfare has begun to grow.
 
Under the new rules, adopted immediately after the attack on 24 January, the airport owners are responsible for the organization of airport security. The extra-departmental guards of the Ministry of Transport will be in charge of providing order at domestic airports. And the extra-departmental guards of the internal affairs bodies will be contracted to do it at international airports.
 
It has been decided to fence securely the entire perimeter of the airport territory. The way it was guarded before could not be worse. From now on, to get on the territory will be possible only through a special checkpoint, equipped with special equipment for checking baggage and with a detector frame. It will be possible to enter the airport building only after the presentation of the passport or driver's license. If passengers drive up to the building in a car, they will also need to have the car documents.
 
Besides, it has been planned to set up around-the-clock security control stations in the territories of international airports for their protection. They will gather all the information from the checkpoints and surveillance cameras. It has also been decided to submit the entire footage in real time to FSB, the internal affairs authorities and the Federal Service for Transport Supervision.

By Lyubov Yu. Moskvina, BCM.ru staff writer
All publications by this author (20)

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