Non-refundable airline tickets will be introduced in Russia after all
The Ministry of Economic Development supported the Ministry of
Transport’s proposal to introduce non-refundable airline tickets. We remind you
that the Ministry of Transport suggests giving the airline companies the right
to introduce special rates, for which in the occasion that the passenger should
wish to decline the flight, the money for such tickets will not be refunded to
citizens. Such changes are planned to be made to the Air Code.
The cost of
non-refundable tickets will be lower than for normal tickets. Passengers can acquire such tickets in
advance. But on any given route of any company, the number of tickets sold for
non-refundable rates can be no more than 30% of all tickets sold. At the same
time, money taken for fees and charges, services which were not actually
provided will still be refunded to the passenger. Airline carriers are also
required to notify passengers of the refund conditions in advance, at all
places such tickets are sold, or on the tickets themselves, or on their own
websites.
With an ordinary
ticket, in the event that the passenger declines to fly, and returns the ticket
72 hours before the flight, they have the right to a refund of the full
purchase price, excluding reservation charges. If the ticket is returned any later, a forfeit fee is also
retained. But the amount of such a fee can be no higher than 25% of the total
ticket price.
The Ministry of
Transport expects that the introduction of non-refundable tickets will be in
demand by passengers for whom the price is the deciding factor. These rates are widespread in global practice
and allow foreign companies to sell a significant amount of tickets even for
the most popular dates and routes for lower costs. At the same time there is no
risk that the airline company will suffer losses because the passenger will
decline to fly and it won’t be able to resell the ticket. In Russia, Airflight
carriers did not have such an opportunity until now.
According to data from
the Ministry of Transport, airline companies losses due to a passengers refusal
to fly for any reason, make up 8% of total revenue of sales for regular
flights. That’s around 22.7 billion roubles.
We would like to point
out that the International Confederation Society of Consumers spoke out against
the introduction of non-refundable tickets. “The practice of selling non-refundable tickets is not something
that we should be taking up from the West. If the service isn’t provided, the
customer should have the right to a full refund of their funds”, - announced
the Chairman of the Board KonFOP, Dmitryi Yanin.