MOSCOW, August 21./ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s largest air carriers have asked the government to consider the possibility of getting urgent support from the government, like the one they received in 2009, the federal air transport agency Rosaviatsiya has said.

“Rosaviatsiya has already started receiving proposals from the country’s leading air carriers for considering urgent support for the industry from the government identical to measures taken amid the crisis in 2009,” the agency said.

The agency points to what it has described as groundless hikes in the prices of jet kerosene. It has identified “a considerable surge in the prices of jet kerosene in some Russian airports.”

In June-August 2014 the price of one tonne of jet kerosene at 30 Russian airports went by 6-7% on the average - from 1,000 roubles to 4,000 roubles ($30 to $120) in value terms. Fuel price hikes were also observed at the airports of the Volga River area, in southern Russia and in Siberia. Rosaviatsiya says that “groundless policies by fuel providers undermine the normal business of air carriers, in the first place, those already under western sanctions.”

The Ministry of Finance on Thursday suggested completing the list of excisable commodities with benzene, paraxylene, orthoxylene, and jet kerosene.

Aviation industry participants are warning this will cause further fuel and ticket price rises.