A magistrate court in St. Petersburg’s Court District No. 17 ordered Aeroflot to reimburse most of the cost of an airline ticket to a passenger whose flight was canceled after the “Carpet” airspace restriction regime was introduced. The information was published on Telegram by Darya Lebedeva, head of the city courts’ joint press service.
According to the court, in June 2025 the man bought two tickets through the Aviasales aggregator for the route St. Petersburg - Mineralnye Vody - St. Petersburg, paying 59,877 rubles. On July 7, the flight from St. Petersburg to Mineralnye Vody, along with many others, was canceled because of the threat of a drone attack.
After that, Aviasales refused to refund the money, saying it had found no schedule changes and that the tickets had been issued under a non-refundable fare. An Aeroflot representative told the court that the airline could not return the money because the carriage contract had been concluded not directly, but through an agency.
During the proceedings, it emerged that Aeroflot has no contract with the Aviasales aggregator and that the tickets had been issued by Aeroclub JSC. That company had not applied to Aeroflot for a refund of the transportation cost. Representatives of the service said the passenger should instead contact the platform owner, Go Travel Un Limited, which is registered in Hong Kong.
The court concluded that when the purchase was made, the claimant had not been informed about the existence of the agent organization. Its role became known only after court inquiries. The judge also noted that when refusing the refund, Aviasales did not disclose the presence of agents and subagents.
The judge said that the legal relationships between the airline and intermediaries should not affect the consumer’s rights or deprive him of the ability to recover the ticket price. As a result, the court awarded the plaintiff 27,636 rubles for the ticket to Mineralnye Vody, 5,000 rubles in moral damages, and a 16,318-ruble fine for violating consumer rights.