The licenсe of the bankrupt Russian airline VIM-Avia has been suspended, Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov was quoted as saying by Interfax on October 30. Under Russian law, the licence must be renewed within three months, or it will be permanently revoked.

Russia's tenth largest airline, VIM-Avia, went bust in September. Its prospects look grim as leasing companies have repossessed most of its aircraft and the airline can't access its own aircraft until it repays debts to Domodedovo airport. As of late September, VIM-Avia's total outstanding debts amounted to RUB10.8bn.

The transport ministry also instructed the Russian federal air transport agency (Rosaviatsiya) to look into a rescue plan for the air carrier, proposed by Boris Karlov, managing director of the investment fund Aurora Investments on October 26. Karlov's proposal stipulates that VIM-Avia dramatically cuts the number of aircraft it operates from 29 to nine, focussing on three key destinations, Far East, China and Central Asia, which would improve the air carrier's seat occupancy rate from 69% to 75% and give it an Ebitdar of 26% on revenue of around RUB15bn.

"We instructed Rosaviatsiya, as the regulator, to consider those plans, after which it will announce its stand to the ministry and the government," Sokolov said, adding that the ministry has no concrete plan for the relaunch of the airline and is in discussions about it.

While a  criminal investigation was opened into the controversial bankruptcy of VIM-Avia, which prosecutors say may have been intentional and left thousands of passengers stuck at airports abroad, its owners left the country. Now the investigators suspect that VIM-Avia's management signed deals in 2016-2017 that were "obviously unprofitable for the company", and that they siphoned assets abroad while ordering accountants to cook the books to conceal the mounting debts to creditors.

As bankruptcies are on the rise in Russia, the failing VIM-Avia has drawn a lot of attention and even lead to a public chastising of the responsible ministers by President Vladimir Putin, who is widely expected to stand for re-election next spring.

Earlier in October, there were reports that Russia's flagship state-run carrier Aeroflot could finance the operations of VIM-Avia, paying RUB1.8bn ($310mn) to keep the company afloat. Aeroflot's fees, collected as trans-Siberian flyover royalties paid by other airlines, are to be spent on VIM-Avia.