Putin reported that the share of flights connecting Russian cities has exceeded 50%

The share of flights connecting Russian cities bypassing Moscow exceeds 50%. This was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects in the Kremlin on December 5.

"By modernizing airports and developing the route network, direct air service is being strengthened. The share of air transportation that connects cities, bypassing Moscow, already exceeds 50%. <...> There is a lot to work on, but still the progress is noticeable," the head of state said.

According to him, flights within the Russian Federation are becoming more convenient and faster. Putin expressed hope that this would curb the growth of tariffs.

The president also noted that the target indicators of national projects should be objective. According to him, at the moment it is assumed that air mobility in the next five years, that is, the total number of citizens who will fly will not change, will remain at the level of 2023. Putin pointed out that this is clearly an underestimate.

"Only in the first 10 months of this year, air travel grew by more than 6%, which means that at the end of the year, it is likely to be higher than the level of 2023," the president said.

On this day, the Kremlin is hosting a meeting of the Presidential Council for Strategic Development and National Projects. The main topic of the meeting is "On the agenda of national development of the Russian Federation for 2025-2030".

Earlier, on October 18, direct air service between Yaroslavl and Moscow, suspended in 2022, resumed.

On October 9, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said at a meeting with Aeroflot CEO Sergei Alexandrovsky that air travel in Russia is growing vigorously, in many ways faster than expected. At the same time, he pointed out that Russia's priority is the development of domestic transportation, primarily for tourist travel within the country.

Before that, on August 14, the head of the Omsk region Vitaly Khotsenko said that the Omsk - Ust-Ishim flight, which was canceled back in the 1990s, had been restored.

Since the end of June passenger airplanes started flying from Pskov to Makhachkala. According to Artem Tarasov, director of the Pskov International Airport named after Princess Olga, there is a desire to show the people of Dagestan the sights of the Pskov region.