Lyusine Kodyakova, head of the Centre of Tourism and Leisure, warned that legalising flight overbooking in Russia without mandatory passenger compensation is a step backward.
Speaking in an interview with Russian news outlet NEWS.ru, Kodyakova stated that domestic airlines have long engaged in the practice of selling more tickets than available aircraft seats to compensate for financial losses caused by no-show passengers.
Flight overbooking is an established revenue management technique used by commercial airlines to maximize flight profitability. Carriers rely on statistical algorithms to predict how many passengers will fail to turn up for a scheduled departure, allowing them to sell extra seats on the assumption that a percentage of passengers will cancel or arrive late.
Requirements for Passenger Protection
Kodyakova argued that officially authorising overbooking in Russia should only be permitted under strict conditions that safeguard traveller welfare. She said airlines must be legally required to provide full ticket refunds, pay financial fines for forced delays, find alternative flights for impacted customers, and provide hotel accommodation for those left stranded.
In global aviation practice, commercial carriers routinely sell between 10 and 15 percent more tickets than available seats on a flight. However, Kodyakova emphasized that regulators in Russia should focus on the specific operational characteristics of individual flight routes rather than applying rigid percentage quotas.
She stressed that without transparent rules and mandatory compensation frameworks, legalising overbooking risks failing to protect passengers and would instead represent a step backward for consumer protections in the transport industry.
Government Plans and Ticket Regulations
The comments come as Russian authorities consider updates to domestic civil aviation policies and airline ticketing standards. Russian Transport Minister Andrey Nikitin previously promised that passenger interests would be the primary priority when developing new rules for selling airline tickets.
The Ministry of Transport of Russia is responsible for setting federal policy and regulatory frameworks across civil aviation, railway, road, and maritime transport. As aviation authorities evaluate new operational guidelines for airlines, consumer groups and industry experts have pushed for clear legal definitions surrounding passenger rights and airline liability.
