The penalties for delaying charters will be severe. Flight delay: what passengers are entitled to by law

My flight from Antalya was delayed by 13 hours. Six months later, the tour operator paid me 36,500 RUR for this. Despite the fact that it was a charter and there seemed to be “no guarantees.”

Sergey Boldin

received compensation from the tour operator

Last fall I bought a package tour and flew with my family to Turkey. While we were relaxing, our airline went bankrupt. Our charter departed home with a delay, so I wrote to the tour operator and asked to compensate for the lost time. The operator replied that this should be done by the airline.

The tour operator did not take into account that I am a lawyer and know my rights. I didn’t start a scandal, but collected evidence and filed a lawsuit against him.

Certificates, checks, call details

Problems with our airline began even before we flew on vacation. The day before departure, the travel agent sent us tickets for the charter flight. The departure time was known, the flight appeared in the airport schedule. But when we arrived at the airport, it turned out that the flight was delayed.

By law, if a flight is delayed for more than two hours, the carrier is obliged to provide passengers with free refreshments and organize communication: two phone calls or two emails. If the flight is delayed for more than four hours, he is obliged to feed everyone a hot meal. If it is longer than six at night or eight during the day, stay in a hotel.

Our flight was delayed by more than four hours, but no one offered us food or drinks. We bought them with our own money, I kept the receipts.

While we were on vacation in Turkey, the airline's problems worsened. Compatriots on the beach were discussing the news: some were unable to fly on vacation on a vacation package, others were unable to return home. The day before departure, I asked the hotel guide to extend our stay to be on the safe side. The guide replied that the flight would be on schedule and there was no need to pay for accommodation.

On the morning of our departure, it became obvious that the plane would not arrive for us on time: our flight was not on the airport’s schedule. We didn’t want to wait outside, so we had to arrange a late check-out so that we wouldn’t be evicted from our room. The tour operator's representative was not there, so I paid for everything myself and asked for a check.


The rest of the day we sat on our suitcases and waited for the tour operator representative to take us to the airport. The departure was postponed several times. After the late check-out time from the hotel had expired, the tour operator still extended our stay - but did not provide the two required phone calls. I called at my own expense and after returning I ordered details of these calls from the telecom operator.

They only came for us in the morning. We were supposed to fly out of Antalya at 8pm but instead left at 9am the next day - with a 13 hour delay.

Upon arrival at the Moscow airport, I went to the information desk and asked to mark the delay of both flights. Such marks are usually placed on the back of the boarding pass or on a printed itinerary receipt.

Then I collected all the documents about violations of our rights and turned to the tour operator for compensation.


Tour operator answers

What's special about a charter

Roughly speaking, the tour operator tells the airline: “I want to rent a plane from you to take 200 people to Antalya on September 9, and return them back on September 23.” The airline replies: “Okay, on the 9th and 23rd the plane is yours for three hours, along with the pilots and flight attendants.”

While the plane is rented from a tour operator, flight delays are on his conscience, which is why he pays compensation. The only exception is if the flight is delayed for safety reasons, for example, if the plane breaks down and it is dangerous to fly. Judicial practice shows that in this case it will not be possible to receive compensation.

The reason for the delay of our flight was not announced at the airport, but it was found on the delay stamps that were placed upon arrival home. The marks “PPS” and “U05” mean “late arrival of the vessel” and “change in departure time by decision of the dispatch service.” Not a word about security.

How to make a claim

The claim must be submitted to the tour operator within 20 days from the end of the trip. The tour operator has 10 days to check everything and respond.

In my claim, I described the situation and demanded that all expenses be reimbursed, as well as compensation for moral damages for the flight delay. In addition, I indicated the account details to which I expect to receive money.

I attached copies of receipts and certificates to the claim and sent all this to the legal address of the tour operator by registered mail. Postal receipts for sending were later useful in court.


Which court to file a claim in?

While the tour operator was thinking about how to respond to my claim, I studied judicial practice on similar disputes. I needed to decide which court to file a claim in if my claim was denied.

As a general rule, a claim must be filed in court at the location of the defendant. But the law protects the consumer as the weaker side of legal relations, and therefore gives him a choice: to sue where the defendant is located or where he himself lives.

If the defendant is a large company, most likely it has already been sued. To find out how it all ended, it is useful to study the judicial practice on the website of the court that has jurisdiction over the legal address of the company. If decisions are often made not in favor of consumers, it makes sense to file a lawsuit in your place of residence. And if you find a court decision in a similar case in favor of the consumer, you can use it to draw up your claim.

Another option is to search through the official websites of city courts of general jurisdiction and magistrates' courts. For example, on the Moscow website there is a section “Territorial Jurisdiction”, where you can determine his court by the address of the defendant. Decisions on claims are usually published in the “Judicial Proceedings” section.

In my case, decisions were often made in favor of tourists, so I did not exercise the right to choose a court. I waited until the tour operator ignored my claim and filed a claim in court at its location.

Statement of claim

In the statement of claim you need to write in which court you are filing it, who the plaintiff and defendant are, at what address they can be found, the price of the claim, what the violation of rights is and what you want to achieve. Also, list documents that support your position. All this information is required; without it, the claim will not be accepted. When drawing up a claim, you should check the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation.

It would not be amiss to cite judicial practice in favor of consumers in similar cases. Consumers do not need to pay state duty.

Before filing a claim, you need to calculate the amount of compensation and the cost of the claim. These are different things. To put it simply, the amount of compensation is all the money you want to recover from the defendant through the court. The cost of the claim is only the money that you lost due to his actions and the penalty provided for by law. The price of the claim does not include compensation for moral damage and a fine for the fact that the defendant did not pay you without a trial.

For example, in my case, the cost of the claim includes the cost of hotel, food, drinks and phone calls. In addition, it includes a penalty for violation of travel dates. In total, I demanded almost 130 thousand rubles from the tour operator, and the price of my claim was 5,123 rubles.

The cost of the claim determines which court will hear your case. If it is less than 50 thousand rubles, then it is global, if it is more, then it is regional. It does not affect anything else in disputes involving service consumers.

In my statement of claim, I demanded from the tour operator:

  1. Compensate for the costs of everything that a passenger is entitled to in case of a flight delay: drinks, food, two phone calls and accommodation.
  2. Compensate for moral damage to all family members, including two children.
  3. Pay a penalty for violation of the terms of service provision - 3% of the cost of the tour package for one day of delay in departure.
  4. Pay a fine for refusing to voluntarily satisfy my claim - 50% of the awarded amount of compensation.

I attached two copies of it to the claim - for the tour operator and the travel agency that sold me his ticket. The tour operator is responsible for paying compensation, so there is no point in involving the agency as another defendant. But he can be brought in as a third party - if the judge approves it. A representative of the agency will come to the meeting, and if any questions arise, he will be able to answer them immediately.

So that the trial would not be postponed if I could not come, I asked to consider the claim without me.

This is what my application looked like:



To the statement of claim I attached certificates about flight delays, copies of receipts for food and hotel, call details that I took from the telecom operator, a copy of the complaint against the tour operator, as well as a press release from Rospotrebnadzor that an administrative case was opened against the tour operator due to flight delays.

Complaint to Rospotrebnadzor

Before going to court, you can complain to Rospotrebnadzor. This will not help you achieve compensation without going to court: Rospotrebnadzor does not have the right to oblige the tour operator to pay you money. But he can fine him based on your complaint, and this will strengthen your position in court. In addition, Rospotrebnadzor specialists will tell you how to file a claim and, perhaps, help protect your interests in court.

But all this is in theory. In my practice, the quality of assistance from Rospotrebnadzor depends on the case and it is dangerous to completely trust it with your work.

Therefore, I filed my claim myself.

Court decision

The court decided that the charter flight was included in the tour package, so the tour operator was responsible for its delay. In December, three months after returning from vacation, the court partially satisfied my demands and recovered from the tour operator:

  1. The cost of living at the hotel is 1153 RUR.
  2. Penalty for violation of travel dates - 3215 RUR.
  3. Moral damage - 20,000 RUR, 5,000 RUR for each family member.
  4. The fine for refusing to satisfy a claim is RUB 12,184.

The court refused compensation for expenses for food at the airport and reduced compensation for moral damage. But even taking this into account, the amount of compensation was 36,552 RUR - this is 34% of the cost of the tour.

Receiving compensation

In February, two months after the court decision, I received writs of execution. Now I had to get the money. To do this, it was necessary to send the sheets to the bailiffs, and then wait until they initiate enforcement proceedings and forcefully collect compensation from the tour operator. The law allows two months for this, but the period can be extended. In practice, receiving money greatly depends on the efficiency of the bailiffs and the perseverance of the claimant.

Another option is to receive compensation yourself through the defendant’s bank, but to do this you need to know what kind of bank it is. Sometimes the account details of a tour operator can be found on its website or in the contract for the sale of a tour.

My tour operator did not publish its details publicly, but I was lucky. Already when the claim was in court, he responded to my claim and transferred compensation for telephone calls to my account. He rejected the rest of the demands and stated that the carrier was responsible for the flight delay, but this was no longer important: having transferred the money to my bank account, he exposed his own, and when I received writs of execution, I did not send them to the bailiffs, but simply took them to his bank.

A day after receiving the writs of execution, the bank transferred the money to me.

How to receive compensation from a tour operator

  1. Keep all receipts, invoices and call details. All requests and refusals must be in writing. If your flight is delayed, ask the airport to make a note about it.
  2. Demand compensation from the tour operator - you have 20 days to do this after the end of the trip. He must answer something in 10 days.
  3. If the tour operator is silent or refuses to pay, sue him or complain to Rospotrebnadzor.
  4. Look for the tour operator's account details on its website or in the contract. If the court sides with you, they will help you get your money faster.
The flight to Turkey was delayed, and we lost two days of rest because of this delay. If we spent two days out of seven at home (at the airport) and not at the resort, can we demand compensation from the tour operator, because flights are also included in the price of the tour package. What should we do at the airport and what are our next steps?

Situations where both charter and regular flights to popular tourist destinations depart late are not uncommon. I hope that my answer will be useful not only to those who buy a full tour package, which already includes the cost of the flight, but also to those who book air tickets on their own.

In accordance with Art. 9 of the Federal Law “On the Fundamentals of Tourism Activities”, the tour operator is responsible for the actions of suppliers who provide services included in the tourism product. At the same time, in accordance with the same article, the tour operator is not responsible for the actions of service providers if there are special legal acts that directly provide for their liability. In this case, there are such acts, these are the Air Code and the Federal Aviation Rules, which stipulate that in the event of a flight delay, the air carrier bears responsibility for all property and moral damage caused to the passenger.

If you booked and purchased air tickets yourself, you will need to prove that your rights were violated. To do this, you need to create a package of documents:
air ticket with a note about flight delay (or cancellation);
a certificate indicating the reason for the flight delay;
documentary evidence of all independent expenses: checks, invoices, etc.;
a ticket that had to be purchased due to being late for a scheduled connecting flight.

Then submit a claim to the airline in writing, attaching copies of documents confirming the right to compensation. If the appeal was ignored or the perpetrators refused to compensate for the costs, you can sue them in court.
And who will answer to the tourist if, for example, due to a late flight, he actually lost a whole day of paid vacation or, as we see from the letter, as many as two?

According to the law “On the Fundamentals of Tourism Activities in the Russian Federation,” the duration of the tour is an integral part of the contract. And any change in travel dates must be agreed upon with the tourist. So you can send a claim to the tour operator - most likely, it will be satisfied. But there are some nuances here too. Travel times are based on dates, not hours. And if a tourist arrives at the vacation spot not in the morning, as expected, but in the evening - having lost the light part of the day, but still on the date specified in the contract - it will not be possible to receive compensation.

A tourist, buying a tourist product with air travel included, completes the transaction with a number of documents. One of these documents is an agreement between him and the air carrier (ticket), which regulates all aspects of the provision of air transportation services. It states that the airline is responsible for any flight delays. The same provision is spelled out in the regulatory document on flight delays - the Federal Aviation Rules, approved by Order of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation dated June 28, 2007 No. 82.
However, there is a Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated June 28, 2012 “On the consideration by courts of civil cases in disputes regarding the protection of consumer rights,” which clarified the responsibility of the carrier and operator for the services they provide:
clause 50 When applying legislation on the protection of consumer rights to relations related to the provision of tourism services, courts should take into account that responsibility to the tourist and (or) other customer for the quality of fulfillment of obligations under the contract for the sale of a tourism product, concluded by the travel agent as on behalf of the operator, and on its own behalf, is borne by the tour operator (including for failure to provide or improper provision of services to tourists included in the tourism product, regardless of who should have provided or provided these services), if federal laws or other regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation do not it has been established that a third party is responsible to tourists (Article 9 of the Federal Law of November 24, 1996 No. 132-FZ “On the Fundamentals of Tourism Activities”).

In this regard, draw the attention of the courts to the fact that, for example, in cases and disputes arising in connection with the implementation of charter air transportation of passengers within the framework of the execution of an agreement on the sale of a tourism product, the proper defendant and executor of the contract of carriage with the consumer is the tour operator, which in accordance with paragraph 2 of Article 638 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, without the consent of the lessor under a lease (time charter) of a vehicle, on its own behalf, enter into transportation agreements with third parties.

Thus, the new resolution actually divided responsibility between the carrier and the tour operator for different types of transportation. The carrier is responsible for regular transportation, as provided for in the Air and Civil Codes. But the charter is managed by the tour operator and you can make claims
now you will need to go to him, as stated in the second paragraph [clause 50 of the Resolution], but the documents that need to be submitted to the tour operator will remain the same as when booking yourself.
In this regard, the question arises: who will then be responsible for ensuring proper conditions for passengers while waiting for the departure of a delayed flight? So let us remind you that the obligation to provide accommodation and hot meals to passengers lies with the air carrier in accordance with the Federal Aviation Regulations, and no one has removed it from it and is unlikely to remove it. The carrier still performs this function, and the operator will be responsible to the tourist, since charter transportation is part of the tourism product.

So don’t be afraid and demand money for your ruined vacation, because you’ve been earning it all year.

Problems with air transportation often affect the quality of rest of our tourists. Increasingly, you can hear about blatant cases of delays or cancellations of flights by seemingly quite large and well-known airlines. For example, the recent problem that arose among tourists with VIM-Avia caused a lot of noise. Of course, you can talk a lot about who is to blame for this, speaking on lengthy topics, but it is worth remembering that first of all, living people suffer from this, who have planned their vacation or are forced to fly to another city or country due to some family circumstances . And these people may be hoping that they will get on another connecting flight to continue their onward journey. But suddenly they find out that their flight is canceled or delayed, and it doesn’t matter whether it is direct or charter. What should they do in this case, what steps should they take? How to get compensation for a ruined vacation?

It is difficult not to get confused in such a situation, especially if it happened to you for the first time, or your flight was a connecting flight, or you were tied to the time of your arrival. But it is worth remembering that your plane ticket is nothing more than an agreement with this airline, which has undertaken to deliver you, as a passenger, to the point of the planet you need and at the time you need, otherwise, it undertakes to take care of its passenger, if circumstances did not go according to plan.

Every passenger should know that the Civil Code of the Russian Federation stipulates cases when the air carrier is not responsible for cancellation or delay of a flight, these are: various natural phenomena - fires, snow drifts, hurricanes, floods; bad weather conditions; sudden military action; complete cessation or restriction of cargo transportation in a number of directions; in some cases, during a strike by airline or airport personnel, in the presence of malfunctions that pose a threat to the life and health of air passengers. In all other cases, the fault lies with the airline that violated its obligations under the contract.

First, let's take a closer look at what happens when a direct or charter flight is canceled by an airline.

- The flight may be canceled several days before the plane departs for its destination.

In this case, the airline traditionally offers passengers several ways to solve the problem of canceled flights: an alternative to flying on another route of the same air carrier or a flight from another company, but the destination remains the same.

The passenger has the right to demand a full refund of the cost of his air ticket. For example, if you purchased one air ticket for a flight with transfers, then you are required to refund the amount for the entire route. If a passenger bought two tickets, for example, Moscow-Barcelona and separately Barcelona-Valencia, and the first flight to Barcelona was cancelled, then you will only be refunded the amount spent on the air ticket from Moscow to Barcelona, ​​and you will need to return the ticket from Barcelona to Valencia at normal rates. If the cancellation of the flight affected the second part of the air travel - Barcelona-Valencia, and no alternative options were provided to you, but the trip has lost its meaning, then the air carrier is obliged by law not only to refund the money for the air ticket to Valencia, but also to fly you back to Moscow for free . Regarding the refund for round trip tickets, you will be able to get a refund of their full cost if the flight is canceled and if you purchased them not separately, but as a “round trip”, that is, two tickets on a single form.

- The flight may be canceled or delayed when the tourist is already at the airport.

The airline is required to give you clear information about the reason and time for which the flight was delayed. You have the right to demand this information from an employee of your airline, and he is obliged to offer tourists options for their further actions. Often, an airline employee makes a proposal to transport tourists to their destination on another aircraft or on a flight from another carrier. And provided that the air carrier is at fault, this flight will be free for the tourist.

Not all passengers who have suffered moral and financial problems due to canceled or delayed flights are aware of their rights to receive compensation. This compensation varies depending on the timing of the transfer and cancellation of the flight, as well as the distance to the desired point. If the airline is at fault, it is legally obligated to give the passenger three percent of the cost of his air ticket for every hour he spent waiting, as compensation for the flight delay. This is stipulated in Article 28, paragraph 5 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”. In addition, pay as a fine twenty-five percent of the minimum wage for each hour of waiting, but this amount cannot exceed half the price of the air ticket. No other additional compensation is given to canceled passengers when flights are cancelled, but every tourist has the right to have the amount of their tickets refunded or exchanged for a similar flight.

Rights of a tourist passenger when a flight is delayed for more than two hours:

Making two phone calls or sending two emails; - you are required to provide free drinks; - if you have children under seven years of age with you, then you must be given free access to the mother and child room.

Tourist rights when a flight is delayed for more than four hours:

The passenger must be fed a free hot meal, and fed every six hours during the day and every eight hours at night.

Rights of tourist passengers when rescheduling a flight by more than eight hours during the daytime and more than six hours at night:

The airline must bring you and check you into a hotel at its own expense, and provide you with a free transfer there and back. According to the law, tourists do not have the right to be placed in the same room with strangers. If the passenger does not like the room provided or the hotel offered, then he can find a suitable option, and the airline must pay an amount that will be equal in price to the initial accommodation option offered to it. A tourist can pay the price difference for the more expensive room he has chosen or pay for his stay in full, but in this case we recommend that you keep the receipt of payment in order to thus return part of the money spent if there are objective reasons for refusing to stay according to the option offered by the air carrier . But, it is worth knowing that if you refuse the room offered by the airline, you lose the right to a free round-trip transfer, but the air carrier is obliged to store your luggage at its own expense.

Where can tourist passengers complain to receive compensation for a canceled or delayed flight?

If there was a cancellation or delay of a domestic direct or charter flight of a Russian company, then claims are considered in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation. Passenger complaints against foreign airlines that have not fulfilled their obligations to them on the territory of the Russian Federation are also considered in Russia. But when an airline postpones or cancels a flight abroad, litigation is conducted in the country and according to the laws where this happened, and the place where the air carrier is registered will not play a role.

Claims are submitted by the passenger personally at the airport of departure or upon arrival. When there is no representative office of your airline at the airport or its employees are not on site, the claim is submitted through the airline’s website. Although emails can often be ignored, it is better to send your claim by registered mail to the airline, make a detailed list of the enclosed documents and keep a copy of your statement, confirmation of dispatch, as this can be used in legal proceedings if the air carrier ignores you or refuses you compensation. According to our Russian legislation, a passenger has the right to present his claims to the air carrier within six months from the date of cancellation or delay of the flight.

I would like to touch on another important point for tourists, which is very topical for Moscow airports. Very often, passengers are taken to an airport different from the one indicated on their ticket. In this case, the airline is obliged to deliver the tourist passenger to his desired destination using free transport. And this rule applies to all airports in the Russian Federation.

https://www.site/2017-06-08/eksperty_obyasnili_s_chem_svyazany_zaderzhki_charternyh_reysov

“Neither tour operators nor air carriers were ready for such demand”

Experts explain why charter flights are delayed

Igor Grom

In recent weeks, information about delays of charter flights has appeared almost daily. The problem has already affected several thousand tourists: people wait for hours at airports for flights to resorts, mainly to Turkey and Greece. The charter program of the VIM-Avia airline was actually disrupted, and there were also delays, for example, at Pegas Fly, Rossiya, NordStar. Experts note that tour operators and airlines were not prepared for the explosive demand for foreign destinations. The Federal Air Transport Agency has instructed airlines to solve the problem of massive flight delays by June 20.

“This year the demand for foreign tourism has increased significantly, and we expect to reach pre-crisis levels. Neither tour operators nor air carriers were prepared for such demand.

That is, everyone implied that there would be growth, but, to be honest, it was hard to believe because there were no economic prerequisites.

However, the early booking was very successful. But now we see the other side of this coin,” Mikhail Maltsev, executive director of the Ural Tourism Association, told the website.

Natalya Khanina

According to Ekaterinburg Koltsovo Airport, the number of passengers on international flights in January - May 2017 increased by 70% compared to the same period last year. If you look at the figures for May alone, the increase is even more significant - 81.5%. For comparison, the number of passengers on domestic flights increased by only 10% in January-May.

The headquarters at Rostourism, headed by Mutko, will solve problems with VIM-Avia charters

The most serious problems arose with the VIM-Avia airline, which explained the failure of the charter program by a banal shortage of aircraft and a sharp increase in passenger traffic. Thus, three of the airline’s aircraft were unable to return from maintenance on time, which ultimately led to a pattern of delays and rescheduling of the company’s flights, and the company decided to cancel some charters. Transport prosecutors' offices in the regions announced an inspection of the airline. Yesterday, the first meeting of the operational headquarters under the leadership of Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Vitaly Mutko was held at Rostourism regarding the problems of VIM-Avia. Following the meeting, the department made a statement that first of all attention will be paid to sending tourists to the southern resorts of Russia. For those tourists who were planning to fly to Turkey, Bulgaria or Cyprus, Rostourism is considering the option of adjusting the flight program in the direction of China, Rostourism explained.

In addition to VIM-Avia, for example, tonight a flight from Yekaterinburg to Vietnam was delayed for 16 hours. Before this, there were many-hour delays, in particular, at Rossiya and NordStar.

As Mikhail Maltsev explained, in recent years, almost every major tour operator from the TOP-10 has either acquired its own airline or entered into a contract with an airline engaged in charter transportation. “This is very expensive, and due to significant leasing payments, they simply do not have the opportunity to have reserve aircraft, unlike large air carriers like Aeroflot or Ural Airlines, which primarily operate scheduled flights. And if some technical difficulty arises with the aircraft, even if the reserve plane is not at the departure point, it can quickly arrive at the required airport, pick up people, and thus the problem will be solved in a short time with minimal costs,” notes Maltsev .

According to the expert, massive delays in charter flights could ultimately have a negative impact on the industry’s economy. On the one hand, demand may decrease again, and on the other hand, prices for tourist programs may increase in those areas where competition will decrease, Maltsev notes.

Meanwhile, today, June 8, the Federal Air Transport Agency issued an official statement that by June 20, charter airlines must adjust their transportation program to solve problems with flight delays and cancellations. The head of the Federal Air Transport Agency, Alexander Neradko, pointed out the discrepancy between the programs of charter airlines and their real capabilities. “Over the past five months of 2017, there has been a significant increase in the volume of passenger traffic, which amounts to 22% of the volume of the same period last year. At the same time, charter airlines increased their performance by one and a half to two times. This growth in traffic volumes was not supported by the availability of an appropriate fleet of aircraft and aviation personnel,” concluded the Federal Air Transport Agency.

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Delays of charter flights have become regular; Rosaviatsiya records from three to 13 such cases every day. The day before, Azur Air delayed a charter from Domodedovo to Vietnam for 14 hours, and Ikar Airlines delayed its flight from Novosibirsk to Cam Ranh for 16 hours. To improve the air transportation market in the tourism segment, federal departments can transfer charter flights to regular status.

This tourist season, Rosaviation daily records at least 3-4 delays in charter passenger flights for more than two hours. On some days, more than ten flights are delayed. According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, 13 charters were detained in Russia on August 6.

In the first days of August, Azur Air took first place in the number of delayed charters. On August 1, the air carrier delayed one flight, on August 2-3 - five, and on August 6 - six, including a flight from the Moscow Domodedovo air hub to Nha Trang (Vietnam), delayed for 14 hours.

According to the schedule, the departure was supposed to take place on August 5 at 15.25, but the flight was first postponed to 20.45, and then postponed every hour. Desperate passengers of the delayed flight tried to block the same airline's flight to Antalya at 4.30 am. According to news agencies, people chanted: “Help, shame on Azur Air.”

The Federal Air Transport Agency notes that the reason for the delay was the malfunction of the aircraft and its forced replacement. On the same day, two more Azur Air flights to Turkey were delayed at Domodedovo (more than 12 hours each) - also due to aircraft malfunction.

The departure of the charter flight "Novosibirsk - Antalya" of Royal Flight airlines is delayed by 9.5 hours due to a malfunction of the aircraft.

According to the schedule, the Boeing 757 was supposed to take off from Tolmachevo airport on August 7 at 8:00, but has not yet departed for Turkey. Now the estimated departure time has been moved to 17:30, according to the airport’s online board.

“They don’t even announce the landing. We checked in at 12 noon and went through all customs and inspections. And from now on we sit in the waiting room.<…>They first gave us an exit number, then removed it. They write: “Delay,” one of the charter passengers told NGS.NEWS.

According to her, there are many passengers with children in the waiting room. “There are no very small ones, infants - from 1.5–2 years and older. They have already eaten all the chocolates from the machine, drank all the soda, chips and all that, because the children are hungry - they arrived in the morning. No food has been provided yet,” said the passenger. Already in the afternoon, tourists were offered soft drinks - as a result, a queue lined up for water.

The Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, together with the Federal Air Transport Agency, is developing a package of bills that will systematically solve the problem of disruptions of charter flights during the high tourist season, the Izvestia newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing a source in the aviation industry.
As the newspaper writes, the new measures will be aimed at “preventing the creation of conditions for delays and cancellations of charter flights carried out on orders from tour operators.” They will also involve a tougher response from the aviation regulator and “the inevitability of punishment for air carriers that fail.” According to Izvestia, the departments also plan to finalize the mechanism for canceling airlines’ permission to operate international charter flights.

“One of the initiatives that is already being discussed is the introduction of a mandatory requirement for airlines to provide information to the Federal Air Transport Agency on the planned volumes of charter passenger traffic... There is a discussion about the possibility of abandoning the practice of transporting tourists to popular leisure destinations on charter flights, chartered by large tour operators. But There is no clear opinion yet about the advisability of this step,” the publication writes.

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