Russian airlines may lose over 100 billion rubles this year due to restrictions caused by the spreading coronavirus, and some of them may even go bankrupt, First Deputy Transport Minister, head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Alexander Neradko said on Tuesday.

“As estimated by airlines themselves, their lost marginal profit from closing destinations to China amounted to around 1.7 billion rubles only in February 2020. Various figures are called, somewhere this situation will continue until the end of the year. These numbers are different, they need to be verified. But figures of over 100 billion rubles are mentioned,” he said.

“A decrease in airline revenues from the closure of international routes with a simultaneous increase in costs in case of the ruble’s depreciation may lead to significant losses and difficulties in the work of civil aviation organizations. In fact, there are risks of bankruptcy of air carriers, in the first place, and other civil aviation organizations that are in a difficult financial situation,” Neradko said.

Amid growing losses of Russian airlines caused by restrictions associated with coronavirus, the watchdog proposes to reset air navigation fees for airlines in the Far Eastern Federal District and in the Arctic and reduce them by 50% in other regions, Neradko said.

“The Federal Air Transport Agency proposes to consider the issue of the actual zeroing of charges for air navigation services of Russian airlines in the areas of the airfields of the Far Eastern Federal District and the Arctic, as well as on the routes for organizing air traffic between them, which will reduce the cost of transportation. Also, the Federal Air Transport Agency proposes to reduce air navigation charges in other regions by 50 %,” he said.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the government is actively discussing the issue of aid to the airlines which faced difficulties due to coronavirus.

“This is a question for the government, (First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei) Belousov is in charge of it in the government, he is working on the development of measures related to the emergency economic situation, figuratively speaking, which is provoked by international market volatility and so on,” Peskov said.

“It is known that the government is actively discussing the topic of assistance to airlines. As for the details, I recommend contacting the government,” he said.