Scores of passengers hoping to spend the May holidays abroad have been delayed at Domodedovo Airport after their airlines either overbooked flights or failed to have back-up planes available when scheduled aircraft were waylaid.
Passengers were facing delays that averaged four to 10 hours on Wednesday and Thursday, said Irina Turina, spokeswoman for the Russian Union of the Travel Industry.
On Wednesday, about 50 tourists were stranded after UTair overbooked a flight to Antalya, Turkey, and ended up waiting 15 hours to board the plane, news reports said.
More flights were delayed Thursday, particularly on routes to Turkey and Egypt.
An Ural Airlines flight to Hurghada, Egypt, was delayed by more than 10 hours, from 11:40 p.m. Wednesday to 10:05 a.m. Thursday, and a Yamal Airlines fight to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, was pushed back from 4:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Two Kolavia flights to Antalya were also delayed, one by more than eight hours and the other by more than 12, Interfax reported.
"Under the law, the airline must arrange meals for passengers at its own expense in such cases and, if the delay is more than eight hours, it is required to place them in a hotel," Turina told RIA-Novosti.
It was not immediately clear how the airlines were dealing the stranded passengers.
Passengers at Domodedovo and the cities other two airports were already facing delays as the Air Force carried out practice flights for the Victory Day parade next week.