Russia’s official TASS news agency has confirmed that 485 flights across the country were canceled last weekend, and thousands more were delayed, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded in overcrowded airports that struggled to cope with the disruption.
With the summer holidays underway, Russians are keen to escape their troubles at home, but, if Ukrainians are to be believed, what happened on July 5 and July 6 is just the start of a summer of travel woe for their neighbors.
The mass cancellations and delays were the result of sweeping and short-notice airspace closures imposed by Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency. Officials have euphemistically blamed the chaos on “external disruptions.”
Russia hasn’t explained what those external disruptions were, but evidence can be found all over the internet as to what was to blame – Ukrainian drones designed to cause disruption to normal Russian citizens.
Between July 5 and July 6, 485 flights were canceled, 88 flights were forced to divert to alternative airports, and 1,900 flights were significantly delayed, official figures reveal. Disruption was felt in both Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Russia’s transport ministry urged airlines to provide support for delayed passengers, with nearly 200,000 food and drink vouchers issued and 94,000 passengers provided with hotel rooms for overnight accommodation.
Given the threat of drones targeting commercial aviation, it’s perhaps not surprising that 43,000 passengers chose to cancel their travel plans and get full refunds.
And the disruption continued on Monday. Russia’s Association of Tour Operators said 2,500 flights were canceled or delayed at the start of the week, although some of the disruption was just an overspill from the weekend’s chaos.
This isn’t the first time that Ukraine has aimed to sow fear amongst Russian citizens by creating travel havoc. Over the busy Christmas and New Year travel periods, multiple Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russia, leading to widespread travel disruption.
The term for the temporary closure of airspace has been coined as ‘the carpet plan’ – a special protocol that is designed to clear the airspace at times of emergency. The term literally translates to blanketing or carpeting the area of airspace to clear it of civilian air traffic.
In the aftermath of last weekend’s flight mayhem, President Putin sacked his transport minister, Roman Starovoit. By Monday afternoon, Starovoit was found dead with a gunshot wound to his head and a pistol lying by his body in a park on the outskirts of Moscow.
Authorities claim Starovoit’s death was suicide.
The Kremlin said Starovoit’s dismissal wasn’t down to a loss of confidence, but officials refused to answer questions about whether he had been sacked due to the weekend’s flight cancellations.
