Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport sends 40% of staff (7,000 FTE) on furlough amid EU/US sanctions

Sheremetyevo Airport near Moscow has sent 40% of its staff – around 7,000 people – on furlough. The decision was announced by the general director of the airport Mikhail Vasilenko. Air traffic at Russia’s biggest airport has fallen sharply since the end of February after the Russian invasion into Ukraine and the subsequent imposed sanctions by the European Union and the United States. 

Russian airlines can only operate domestically and to a few countries that didn’t impose sanctions on the country. Most airlines are not operating to/over Russia.

The airport also announced the suspension of all future investments and the closure of the third terminal in addition to the already closed terminals E and F.

Staff working at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport are transferred onto a part-time regime as the airport suffers less from the passenger drought.

In a document, Vasilenko wrote that: “the decision was announced for reasons “out of the control of the employer and employees” and in connection with a “critical decrease in passenger traffic” against the backdrop of sanctions against the Russian Federation and the closure of the airspace of a number of countries.”

Employees on furlough will still get 2/3 of their salary and can retain their job. They still have social protection and other support, a union member said.