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Russian air carriers to get 1.5 bln rubles for helping to bring citizens back

Russian Air Transport Operator Association said Russian air carriers that helped to take Russians out of coronavirus-hit countries sustained daily losses of at least 500 million rubles ($6.3 million)

MOSCOW, March 28./TASS/. Russian air carriers will receive 1.5 billion rubles ($19 million) in total for helping to return Russians from abroad amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, the Russian government said in a decree published on Saturday.

The document orders "to allocate a total of 1.5 billion rubles to Rosaviatsiya [Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency], for being distributed as subsidies among air transportation companies in order to cover the losses they sustained during a campaign to take Russian citizens <...> out of foreign states hit by the novel coronavirus infection."

Earlier, Russian Air Transport Operator Association said Russian air carriers that helped to take Russians out of coronavirus-hit countries sustained losses of at least 500 million rubles ($6.3 million) daily.

Starting from March 27, Russia suspended all international regular and charter flights. Air carriers are allowed to only evacuate Russians home. However, the ban does not cover freight, postal, sanitary and humanitarian flights. The day before, Russia’s low-cost airline Pobeda announced it had suspended all flights from April 1 to May 31.

Thousands of Russians became stranded worldwide as countries and territories started to close their borders and introduce other quarantine measures due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

A massive campaign to return them home continued over the weekend. Earlier on Saturday, the Russian Transport Ministry said that 92 more charter flights were to take place on Saturday alone. According to the ministry, some 106 charter flights were carried as of Friday to bring more than 13,400 Russians back home from abroad.

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