ASSESSMENT OF THE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE RUSSIAN AIRLINES IN TERMS OF THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC (ON THE EXAMPLE OF S7 AIRLINES)

Economic and political challenges are strongly reflected in various sectors of the transport system, and civil aviation is no exception. Civil aviation is closely related to the general global and national macroeconomic trends. During economic downturns, airlines are almost the very first to face serious difficulties in ensuring efficient and uninterrupted operational activities. The coronacrisis became the most difficult for the aviation industry in the entire history of its existence: airlines were forced to completely stop carrying out passenger air transportation during the first wave of the pandemic, and during the second and third waves — to work at a loss at all. Aviation was attributed to the sectors of the economy most affected by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. In 2022, the industry began to recover from coronavirus restrictions, which resulted in a significant decrease in passenger traffic in 2020–2021, demonstrating its steady growth, both on domestic and international lines, but new challenges have emerged, among which, in particular: restrictions on flights of civil aircraft operated by the Russian air carriers and/or registered in the Russian Federation, sanctions pressure on the industrial complex of the country in order to reduce its economic development and competitiveness in the world market, etc. The goal of the article is to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sphere of air transportation in Russia, identify the problems faced by the aviation industry, and analyze their impact on the main operational and financial performance of the Russian airlines on the example of the largest private airline included in the list of backbone organizations of the Russian Federation — S7 Airlines. According to the results obtained during the study, a significant decrease in operational and financial indicators was revealed within the entire air transportation industry and, in particular, in S7 Airlines, which is one of the industry leaders in Russia. The main problems of the industry identified during the study are the low volume of domestic aircraft production, a decrease in passenger traffic, the oligopolization of the industry, a decrease in the number of aircraft in the fleet of the Russian airlines.