S7 Group, comprising Sibir’ and Globus airlines, is against targeted financial support of Russian carriers, ITAR-TASS reports with reference to S7.

"First of all I would like to say that airlines included in S7 Group did not ask for state support, - a representative of the Group noted. – At the same time we believe that targeted support (or state guarantees) of some carriers will cause deterioration of the competitive situation in the industry. In other words, the state support must not be provided only to selected airlines".

Sibir’ airline is ranked 4th among Russian carriers in terms of traffic volume (after Aeroflot, Transaero and UTair). In 2013 passengers traffic of Sibir’ and Globus airlines reached 9.24 million passengers. Following the results of seven months of 2014 the passenger traffic of S7 Group amounted to 5,64 million passengers.

Minister of Transport, Maxim Sokolov, told ITAR-TASS at Sochi-2014 investment forum that leaders of some large airlines asked the state for support due to deterioration of market situation. In particular, the government may provide state guarantees for credits of the carriers. This matter may be approved by the involved ministries in a month, he said.

The head of the Ministry of Economic Development, Alexey Ulyukaev, confirmed that many airlines are having hard times at the moment. "We will try to find means for supporting them and improving financial situation. We may help by allocating funds or by restructuring their business", - he said.

According to Vedomosti, Vladimir Tasun, head of Russian Air Operators Association (also known as AEVT) asked the presidential administration to provide the airlines with state support. The source noted that this refers to four large airlines – Aeroflot, UTair, Transaero and S7.

Tasun confirmed that he wrote the letter to the presidential administration asking for support in the form of state guarantees and added that five large carriers were mentioned in this letter (70% of Russian air transportation market is accounted for these carriers).

Transaero submitted its proposals related to possible variants of state support (doe to restrictions on flights through the Ukrainian airspace) to the Ministry of Transport, but the carrier did not address the Government Commission for Economic Development and Integration, Transaero noted. CEO of UTair, Andrey Martirosov, said that he is cooperating with other airlines, “banks and authorities to keep the carrier working”.

Aeroflot Group did not commented on the proposal for provision of state guarantees to the airlines. However, on August 25th CEO of Aeroflot, Vitaly Savelyev, said that the Group did not ask for state support. He said: “According to our experts, Aeroflot loses about $20 million per year. So far we are not asking our passengers to pay more. And we haven’t asked the government for support", - he said.

This year due to political situation and fluctuations of ruble’s exchange rates carriers experienced lower sales and lower growth rates of international passenger traffic. Since spring 2014 Russia’s largest carriers perform flights bypassing Ukraine and they are having hard times due to instable situation at the tourism market.