New Flight Rules in Russia from March 2026: What Changes for the Passenger

Starting March 1, 2026, the rules for flying in Russia are changing. If your flight is delayed more than 30 minutes, you can return the ticket and get your money back. If you miss your outbound flight, the return is no longer automatically cancelled. Families with two or more children get a guaranteed seat next to each other. And airlines have very specific deadlines to give you water, food or a hotel when your flight is stuck on the ground. The Russian press has called it a “silent revolution” in civil aviation.

In this article I’ll walk you through what changes exactly, what affects you as an international traveler (more than you’d think) and what stays the same.

Why the rules are changing now

The Russian Ministry of Transport published Order No. 341 (Приказ № 341) on October 15, 2025, amending the Russian Federal Aviation Regulations (Федеральные авиационные правила, FAP) of 2007. The text enters into force on March 1, 2026 and will remain valid until March 1, 2031.

You can consult the full text in official Russian legal databases such as ConsultantPlus. The changes affect dozens of points in the regulation, from the information the airline is required to give you before the flight to the deadlines within which they have to serve you water if your flight is delayed. The Russian Association of Tour Operators (АТОР) has called it a “silent revolution” in flights across Russia.

It’s the biggest update to air passenger rights in Russia in a decade, and it comes at a time when delays caused by temporary airport closures (drones, weather conditions) are frequent. The new rule aims to close the grey areas many airlines used to reduce their liability for delays, cancellations and refunds.

Who does it affect? More than you’d think

This is the first question worth answering: if the new rule is Russian, does it affect you as a foreign traveler? Yes, in quite a few cases. The new rules apply to:

• Any domestic flight within Russia, regardless of the passenger’s nationality. If you fly Moscow–Saint Petersburg, Moscow–Sochi, Moscow–Kazan or any other internal route, it applies to you 100%.
• International flights operated by Russian airlines: Aeroflot, S7 Airlines, Pobeda, Ural Airlines, Azimuth and similar. This includes, for example, Aeroflot flights between Moscow and Istanbul, Baku, Dubai, Belgrade or Yerevan.

What does not affect you: flights operated by non-Russian airlines to Russia. If you fly with Turkish Airlines, Pegasus, Air Serbia, Qatar Airways, Etihad, FlyDubai, Royal Air Maroc or any other, those flights follow the rules of the airline’s country, not the Russian ones. In other words, the most common situation for a traveler flying from Europe or North America (a London–Istanbul–Moscow flight with Turkish, for example) falls outside the new regulatory package.

Even so, there are two very frequent cases in which you do benefit:

• When you book a Russian domestic flight because your trip includes several destinations (the typical case: you land in Moscow and fly on to Sochi, Kazan, Irkutsk or Vladivostok).
• When you fly with Aeroflot from the international hub to Moscow or Saint Petersburg (for example, Istanbul–Moscow or Baku–Saint Petersburg).

If you’re still not sure which airlines operate your route, I cover the details in the guide on how to book flights to Russia in 2026.

If your flight is delayed or cancelled: more reasons to get your money back

Until now, the so-called forced ticket return (what the Russians call вынужденный возврат) covered fairly limited scenarios. The new decree substantially expands the list. From March 1, 2026 you can demand a full refund of the ticket if:

• Your flight is delayed more than 30 minutes. This is one of the most important changes: before, the threshold was much higher and depended on each airline.
• The airline brings the departure time forward compared to what’s on your ticket.
• They don’t provide the service or class you paid for (for example, you end up in economy after paying for business).
• You or a close relative falls ill and you can’t travel (with medical certificate).
• The airline issued the ticket incorrectly (wrong data, wrong route, etc.).

One extra detail worth knowing: the airline can no longer charge you for mistakes they made themselves when issuing the ticket. If they got the name, date or destination wrong, the correction or refund is on them.

In practice: if you buy a Moscow–Sochi flight and it gets delayed 35 minutes, you already have the right to demand a full refund. Before, many airlines hid behind vague wording. Now the rule is categorical.

The change that benefits travelers most: “no-show” no longer cancels the return

This is the change that, in my opinion, is most useful for anyone organizing a complex trip across Russia with several legs. Until now the rule was harsh: if for any reason you missed the first flight of your itinerary (the “outbound”), the airline automatically cancelled all the subsequent segments, including the return flight. You ended up without your trip and without your money.

From March 1, 2026 it no longer works that way. If you miss the first flight, you can keep the subsequent segments as long as you notify the airline within a reasonable time after the departure of the flight you didn’t take. On top of that, the airline itself is now required to inform you in advance how to proceed in this case.

Why is this so important? Because anyone combining plane and train across Russia has a real chance of missing a connection at some point: a delayed Sapsan between Moscow and Saint Petersburg, a tight connection from Istanbul, a slow arrival at the terminal… Before, this could cost you the entire ticket. Now you only lose the segment you didn’t use.

My advice: if for whatever reason you miss a Russian airline flight, call or write to the company as soon as possible. Even though the regulation protects you, leaving a written record of your intention to continue using the following segments avoids problems at the check-in counter.

Mandatory assistance if your flight is delayed

One of the most concrete parts of the new regulation is the timetable for the services the airline must provide while you wait. Before, the wording was generic (“water, refreshments and, where applicable, hotel arrangements”) and led to disputes. The deadlines are now as follows:

• Water: they must give it to you within the first hour after 2 hours of waiting have passed. In other words, by the third hour of waiting it should already have reached you.
• Hot meal: within the 2 hours following the first 4 hours of waiting. That is, between the fifth and sixth hour you’re entitled to a free hot meal.
• Two free phone calls or emails of up to 5 minutes each to notify a relative or change plans.
• Free hotel accommodation when the wait involves an overnight stay or when the delay exceeds the foreseen limits.

If the airline fails to comply, write it down (photo of the delay board, photo of the receipt for the water you had to buy yourself) and file a complaint later. Precedents in Russian courts tend to favor the consumer when there’s written proof.

Flying with children: the most useful changes

If you travel to Russia with children, several updates will interest you. Some apply only to Russian domestic flights; others to any flight operated by a Russian airline.

• 50% discount in economy class for children up to 12 years old on Russian domestic flights, provided they travel with an adult on the same booking. It doesn’t matter whether the adult is a parent, grandparent or anyone else: the discount applies the same way.
• Adjacent seat guaranteed for families with two or more children up to 12 years old. Before it was a recommendation; now it’s an obligation. If the airline can’t offer seats together, it must provide an alternative or a refund.
• Stroller, carrycot and child car seat for under 2s travel free in the cabin, without counting against your carry-on allowance and, importantly, even if you fly without a child that day (which wasn’t possible before). The idea is to make it easier for an adult to drop off or pick up children’s equipment.
• Stroller handed back at the jet bridge: you won’t have to wait at the airport baggage belt. You collect it at the foot of the plane when you disembark with the baby in your arms.

If you fly with a baby between Moscow and Sochi, for example, this combination of measures changes the experience quite a bit. And it cuts the cost of family travel, mainly because the temptation for airlines to charge for the stroller as additional baggage disappears.

Carry-on baggage: what now travels free

Another relevant change for any passenger is the expansion of what you can bring into the cabin without counting against your carry-on allowance. The new items:

• Purchases made inside the airport security zone (not just the international duty-free) travel free on board, provided they come in a bag sealed by the shop. This is particularly useful on Russian domestic flights, where shops previously weren’t “duty-free” and many airlines refused to let you bring on board what you’d bought.
• Strollers, carrycots and child seats for under 2s: free, as already mentioned in the previous section.
• Canes, walkers and other mobility devices for passengers with disabilities: requirements relaxed; they don’t count against your carry-on allowance.

What stays the same are the general weights and dimensions of carry-on and checked baggage, which each airline sets with its own limits. The regulation doesn’t touch those specific measurements.

Electronic boarding pass: finally on a par with paper

Until now, the electronic boarding pass worked in Russia more out of custom than by regulation. In practice almost everyone boarded with the QR code on their phone, but the regulation still didn’t recognize it explicitly and sometimes, at small airports or with new staff, you were asked to print it out.

The new rule officially equates the electronic boarding pass to the paper document, provided it contains all the data and is legible on the phone screen. This means you can no longer be denied boarding for presenting the ticket in digital format. Good news for those who travel light and prefer to carry everything on their phone.

That said, my practical recommendation: if you fly with a connection and your phone is running low on battery, download the boarding pass as a PDF as backup or carry a printed copy. A dead phone at the check-in counter is still a problem, regulation or no regulation.

How this affects you in practice

Here’s an actionable summary of what changes for you as a foreign traveler:

• If you book a Russian domestic flight (Moscow–Sochi, Moscow–Kazan, Moscow–Irkutsk, Moscow–Saint Petersburg, etc.): all the new rules apply to you. Take note of the 30-minute threshold for refunds.
• If you fly with Aeroflot, S7 or Pobeda on an international route: the new rules apply to you. For example, an Istanbul–Moscow flight with Aeroflot is covered.
• If you fly with Turkish Airlines, Pegasus, Air Serbia or any other non-Russian airline to Russia: your rights remain those of that airline (Turkish, Serbian, Qatari…). The Russian rule doesn’t apply to you, but your airline’s rules tend to be similar or more generous.
• Keep everything in writing: SMS notifications about the delay, screenshots of the board, receipts. If something fails at the counter or in the air, documentary proof is what decides.
• If you miss your outbound flight, contact the airline before the next segment departs: you can now keep the return or the subsequent segments.
• If you travel with a baby: don’t pay to bring the stroller; it goes free, even if you’re flying without the child that day.

Will ticket prices go up?

It’s a logical question: if airlines now have more obligations, who pays for them? The Russian financial press (Vedomosti, Kommersant, Infoline) agrees that the extra cost will be partly passed on to the passenger. Some analysts estimate that, due to the tightening of the rule alone, prices may rise by around 5% in 2026, with additional factors (tax burden, operating costs) pushing them further upward.

That said, the effect is uneven: Russian international routes depend much more on the fuel price and the ruble-to-foreign-currency exchange rate than on this regulation. For Russian domestic flights, you’re likely to see somewhat more expensive tickets from mid-2026 onwards.

To wrap up: this regulatory shift doesn’t make flying in Russia more complicated — quite the opposite. It gives you more protection as a consumer, specific deadlines where there used to be ambiguity, and above all, it removes the fear of losing your entire trip because of a minor delay. If you want to find your flight with the search engine that does show Russian routes and pay with a foreign card, I explain it step by step in the guide on how to book flights to Russia. And if you’re still putting your trip together, take a look at the new rules for booking hotels in Russia, which enter into force on the same day and round out the same consumer protection package.

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