Vladimir Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed with the proposal of the head of the Federal Antimonopoly service (FAS) Igor Artemyev to check the operation of the automated system of formation of prices for air tickets. Dialogue on this topic arose during the meeting on development of transport infrastructure of the North-West of Russia, reports TASS.
The head of FAS told the President that Russian airlines previously imported from U.S. and Europe special computer system for dynamic pricing, setting prices for tickets depending on demand. Thus, in his opinion, the work of these algorithms is the result of conspiracy of the global airline industry. In this regard, Artemyev proposed to study this system in order to prevent unwarranted growth of prices for air tickets.
The head of state agreed that this question requires to understand. “I hate to say that it’s all nonsense, and I can’t say that I fully agree with you about the conspiracy, but to deal with precisely this need,” the President added.
In October 2014, it was reported that the FAS in two years is delaying the commissioning of the new system of tariffs of the airlines, caused a sharply negative reaction from carriers. Then Igor Artemyev said that the anti-monopoly office yielded carriers “given the realities of crisis”: to reduce traffic flow, reduce purchasing power, reduce economic growth. The service is expected to reach an agreement with the companies, “without breaking them with an axe”, so that they gradually started to implement new standards.
FAS threatened aviators to prosecute due to the overpricing of tickets at the end of February 2014. According to the authority, a number of companies dominate the market and impose passengers tariffs “without taking into account the dynamics of consumer demand volume.”
The basis of the new system of dynamic tariffs for airlines is the idea according to which, the cost of tickets should depend on the occupancy of the plane and the distance of the flight. Prices can be supported to rise and fall depending on demand.