The Ministry of Transport will introduce a 50% discount on air tickets for families with children

The Ministry of Transport is working out with airlines a 50% discount for families with children on air tickets. About it on Thursday, December 19, told "Izvestia" in the department.

"The Ministry of Transport within the framework of the President's direct line instruction has already started working with airlines to provide families with children with a 50% discount on air tickets. Solutions will be worked out by mid-January 2025," the ministry said.

It added that airlines are implementing discount programs for the transportation of children, with the size of the discount from 15 to 50% of the cost of an adult ticket. A number of carriers give a discount not only to children, but also to all adults accompanying the child, they said.

The ministry also added that they are now working out with airlines the issue of mandatory joint accommodation of children with parents on board the aircraft.

The Ministry of Transport specified that in 2023 the 20 largest airlines transported 7.3 million children up to 12 years old, for 10 months of 2024 transported 7.1 million children. Children under the age of two are transported free of charge on domestic routes and with a 90% discount on international flights.

Support is also provided under three subsidy programs, which will continue in 2025. For example, under the program of subsidizing air travel from the Far East and from Kaliningrad, the right to preferential fares is available, including parents with many children, passengers under 23 years old, students of Kaliningrad universities, and children under 12 years old receive an additional discount of 25%.

Wings by click: discounted air tickets will start to be sold online

The relevant experiment has been approved by the government

Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin at a combined direct line and press conference demanded from airlines to stop the practice of denying benefits for tickets by manipulating fares. According to the legislation, airlines must provide families with children a benefit of 50% of the standard fare.

Before that, on December 16, it was reported that from January 1 to July 1, 2025 in the Russian Federation will begin pilot sale of tickets via the Internet for some categories of citizens participating in the program of preferential air travel. It was specified that the participants of the experiment can be young people under the age of 23 years, pensioners, disabled people and large families, who now have to go to ticket offices to buy an air ticket at a special fare.