Russia sends warning / Republic moves forward

The Russian Transport Minister Russia Valery Okulov warned a committee in Moscow this week that more airline companies could well go bankrupt saying: “Airlines are accumulating losses, and we do not rule out the risk of airlines going bankrupt if demand does not pick up and traffic does not grow as a result.” There is no question that he is right, the Russian economy is continuing to contract fast due to sanctions and low oil and gas prices. Rosaviation, the Russian air-transport agency, reported that overall passenger traffic in January fell by another 6% year on year to 5.54 million