Collapse in civil aviation: hundreds of flights cancelled in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi

Airports in the European part of Russia are in collapse due to drone attacks. Exhausted passengers are forced to lie on the floor at the capital's airports. The governor of the Leningrad Region, Alexander Drozdenko, and the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, reported on downed drones throughout the day. Emergency services are working at the site of the fallen debris. The aviation collapse is accompanied by the shutdown of mobile Internet.

A concert has begun in Sheremetyevo in the evening. Tired passengers are trying to cope with the chaos and are singing songs, playing violins and accordions. They have not been able to fly home since the morning.

According to footage widely shared on social media, there is a severe shortage of waiting space at the airport, forcing many passengers to sit on the floor while waiting for their flights to be announced.

The crowding is even more noticeable in the area of ​​escalators and boarding gates. There is practically no free space left: neither in the waiting rooms, nor in the cafes located there. As passengers themselves report, airline representatives do not provide any information about the expected departure time and further actions.

Aeroflot has issued an official comment regarding the current situation with flight delays. The air carrier's press service stated that due to the need to make changes to the schedule on July 5, 2025, a certain number of Aeroflot and Rossiya flights were cancelled. Passengers transferred to other flights were offered the nearest available option, taking into account the availability of free seats. The company emphasized that transfer to earlier flights is not possible, and recommended that passengers who decide to cancel their flight do not remain at the airport.

The Association of Tour Operators reported a build-up of aircraft at Sheremetyevo Airport. The reason was cancellations and previously introduced restrictions, which led to the simultaneous arrival of a large number of flights.

In connection with flight delays, the Moscow Transport Prosecutor's Office initiated supervisory measures. Representatives of the department reported that the Moscow Prosecutor's Office for Supervision of Law Enforcement in Air and Water Transport has been instructed to monitor the situation in order to protect the rights of passengers and ensure that they are provided with the services they are entitled to.

Temporary restrictions on the arrival and departure of aircraft were reintroduced at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport in the evening. Passenger check-in for flights has been temporarily suspended in the terminal building and access to the pre-flight inspection area has been restricted.

Officials are urging citizens to be vigilant and to take the restrictions into account when planning their travel and flights. Air traffic between St. Petersburg and Moscow has been almost completely blocked. Pulkovo is seeing a build-up of passengers whose flights have been delayed or cancelled. At least ten flights on July 5 were diverted to alternative airports, including Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo, as well as airports in Kazan, Arkhangelsk and Cherepovets.

After the flight from Tyumen arrived at Sheremetyevo Airport, the members of the group "Blestyashchie" spent more than three hours on the plane. Information about this was shared by Silvia Zolotova, one of the group's members, on her Instagram account (belongs to Meta, a recognized extremist organization and banned in Russia).

As proof, the singer posted a video filmed right in the airplane cabin.

“There is discontent brewing on board; we have not been able to leave the plane for three hours now,” Zolotova commented on the situation.

Nadezhda Ruchka, also a soloist of Blestyashchie, shared a post from the Telegram channel “Tut Moskva,” which reported that the group was flying on an Aeroflot flight from Kurgan to Moscow with a transfer in Tyumen.

Aeroflot representatives announced the cancellation of a number of flights, without specifying the exact number. Passengers were advised to track the status of their bookings through a mobile application.

According to data published on the Sochi airport website, twenty flights, both arriving and departing, were delayed.

More than half of them, twelve planes, are waiting to land. Most of the delayed flights were heading from Moscow. One of the flights, departing from Sheremetyevo, is designated as a combined flight.

In addition, there are delays on flights to cities such as Yekaterinburg, Perm and Volgograd.

Representatives of the airport's press service explain the current situation by the fact that airlines are making changes to flight schedules due to restrictions in effect at a number of Russian airports, including the capital's and St. Petersburg's air hubs.

The statement emphasizes that the Sochi airport continues to operate in the normal mode. In order to ensure prompt service to passengers during the period of increased load caused by the need to adjust the schedule, all airport services are staffed with additional personnel.

Nobody knows when the flight schedule will return to normal throughout Russia. Reasonable people seriously advise air passengers not to suffer and to return their tickets until better times. In any case, the risk group may include the sick and elderly, small children, who find it difficult to endure the hardships of the air collapse.