Up to the middle of 2011, the active and not very flying population of our vast homeland used the services of budget airlines (also known as low-cost) for flights inside the country. Cheap air tickets became a reality, since the tariffs of such airlines started from 250 rubles. The cost, of course, significantly increased airport and fuel surcharges, but in the sum it all went out cheaply - it was possible to fly from Moscow to St. Petersburg for 1,300 rubles.

In Russia there were only two major budget airlines - SkyExpress and Avianova, a company partly owned by A1 holding, and in part to Americans Indigo Partners .Actually, the Russians would fly, but rejoice at affordable prices, if not for one thing: Russia was not ready for the overseas Western models of air transportation .What is the function of low-cost bureaus in Europe? On the use of small, secondary importance, airports that are significantly removed from large cities - and, accordingly, the cost of service in them is much cheaper, and convenient time slots are more than enough - regular airlines-giants will not be wasted up to $$ .In Russia, both Skyexpress and Avianova flew from large airports, from Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo respectively, where they had to compete with the Big Three - Aeroflot, Transaero and S7 for slots, a place, and, in general, the right to exist ±​​$ The .

The second serious mistake (mainly related to SkyExpress) was the use of rather old aircraft due to their low cost. The model of low-cost transportation implies the use of each car in the tail and in the mane - the less the aircraft is idling on the ground, the more the airline gets. Older aircraft could not withstand such loads - hence frequent breakdowns, delays and / or cancellations of flights, and increasing discontent of passengers.

Avianov had much less problems with flight delays - after all, half of the company belonged, as already mentioned, to Indigo Partners, who specialized in creating low-cost airlines .In particular, they own WizzAir, and a few more foreign airlines .The planes that were leased were newer, the airport communications were better debugged - all this led to the fact that the airline was gradually strengthening its positions and eventually entered the "big five" for domestic transportation .The current situation was not satisfied with the leading airlines - a strong competitor that transports passengers twice cheaper than Aeroflot does, no one needed $ ±​​$.As a result, a scandal broke out between two partners - Indigo and A1, during which the CEO Andrew Pine, a representative of American investors and the actual leader of Avianov .Soon Constantine Teterin, former CEO of Red Wings, who worked for Aeroflot for many years, was invited to one of the leading positions in the company..Indigo severed relations with A1 and refused further cooperation with the holding company .Avianova ceased to exist a few months after the arrival of Teterin .

Let's sum up: at the moment the Russian aviation market is not ready for the arrival of a low-cost model - there is no suitable infrastructure, and there are no investors ready to invest in Russian budget aviation..Foreign investors on the example of Indigo were clearly and unambiguously shown that they do not want to see in Russia, but inside the country those who want to compete with Aeroflot are not yet observed .Thus, for travelers who want to move between cities in Russia, there is currently nothing left but to use the services of the Russian Railways, and buy railway tickets .But, nevertheless, let's hope that the situation will change soon and we will see the revival of the low-cost model in Russia .

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