The story of Aeroflot Business Pass cards got finished unexpectedly. Reminding, those cards gave the right of free flight to a wide circle of physical persons (186) – from FSB director to the Prince of Kent, from the head of a near-Moscow district to a sumo wrestler Soslan Borazdov. The public got to know about such a secret list only after Novaya Gazeta publications (issues 81, 82 for 2007).    

Now, 6 months later, we got an official letter saying that Aeroflot has refused issuing and distributing of Business Pass cards. It is interesting to see the reasoning: “The publications in Novaya Gazeta made the cards holders to notice the necessity of observing the requirements by tax legislation related to the use of such cards. <.> So following the request by a number of the entitled clients, they were excluded from the program”.   

Incidentally, last year the deputy general director of Aeroflot Lev Koshlyakov assured us there could not be any tax-related aspects. He said then “An empty seat will fly anyway. Besides, as there is no real payment of this service, there cannot be any tax load. No tax on transportation, no profits and so no VAT”.