An airport can restrict arrivals and departures for a few hours and then lift the restriction. For a passenger it looks like one thing only: the departure time moves, and then moves again.

Here is the practical side — what the rules oblige the airline to provide, where to read the real status, and when it stops making sense to wait.

Where to check the status

The most accurate source is the airport's own live board at pulkovoairport.ru. It updates ahead of third-party apps and shows the actual state of the flight.

Second, the airline's own notifications: check that your booking carries a working phone number and email, because that is where the rescheduling message goes.

The clock starts at the time printed on your ticket

The single most useful thing to know. The waiting period runs from the departure time stated in the ticket, not from the latest announcement. If it said 14:00 and the flight has slipped three times, your clock still starts at 14:00.

If the aircraft is diverted to an alternate airport, the count starts from its arrival there, and passengers hold exactly the same rights.

What is due, and when

Everything below is provided at no additional charge — the rules say so in a separate clause.

After 2 hours — drinking water, within an hour of that point.

After 4 hours — hot food and drinks, within two hours. And again after every further six hours of daytime waiting, or every eight hours at night.

After 8 hours by day, 6 hours by night — a hotel, plus transport to it and back. Daytime runs 06:01 to 21:59, night 22:00 to 06:00.

Also a mother-and-child room for a child under seven, and baggage storage.

⚠️ Day or night is fixed by the departure time on the ticket and is not recalculated if the flight slips from evening to morning. A 23:30 departure keeps the night clock — so the hotel becomes due after six hours, not eight.

Money

The statutory penalty is 100 roubles per hour of delay, capped at half the fare. The carrier avoids it only by proving force majeure, the repair of a fault threatening life or health, or other circumstances beyond its control — and the burden of proof is on the carrier.

Losses are separate and recoverable in full on top of the penalty: a forfeited booking, a missed connection, a replacement ticket. Keep the receipts as you spend.

You may decline to fly. A delayed departure is grounds for a forced refusal of carriage, and that returns the fare in full regardless of fare rules — non-refundable tickets included.

The St Petersburg advantage: the train is a real option

Pulkovo has something most Russian airports do not: Moscow is reachable by train in about the time a long delay consumes.

The arithmetic is simple. Once a delay passes three or four hours with no firm new time, the trip to Moskovsky station plus a daytime high-speed train often beats waiting — and since a forced refusal returns the whole fare, the train is paid for instead of the flight, not on top of it.

Before heading for the station: register the forced refusal with the airline rather than simply walking out, keep your boarding pass and a screenshot of the board, and check seat availability while still in the terminal.

For destinations beyond Moscow the trade rarely works: the train takes a day or more, and waiting wins.

If a package holiday is already booked

Russian tourism law treats a change to the dates of travel and a deterioration of the travel conditions set out in the contract as material changes of circumstance, which entitle you to demand that the contract be amended or terminated.

The demand goes to the tour operator in writing. And amendment is often the better ask: new dates or a different departure airport can beat a full refund when the accommodation is already paid for.

Photo: Dinamik · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons. Rules and code provisions verified on 2 September 2026.