Marketing promotions and their results

The Company’s Marketing Policy puts a special focus on retaining existing and acquiring new customers. We developed and successfully implemented a set of marketing initiatives aimed to boost passenger traffic.

In 2019, 44 global marketing campaigns and approximately 900 targeted marketing initiatives were carried out in the deregulated segment. In addition to discounts offered for some seat categories (upper berths) and some destinations, we also offered special fares for specific passenger categories.

Passengers aged over 60 were entitled to a 5% discount for second-class sleeping carriages in trains departing between 23 January and 15 April or between 2 September and 25 December 2019.

For bookings made on or after 31 May 2019, large families were entitled to a 20% discount on domestic routes for second-class sleeping carriages in trains departing between 1 June and 31 July 2019.

For departure dates between 1 May and 31 December 2019, the Great Patriotic War veterans, including disabled veterans, and persons attending them (one such person per a war veteran or disabled veteran) were entitled to free travel between departure and destination points located within the Russian Federation in FPC’s deluxe, first-class and second-class sleeping carriages or carriages with seats on long-distance trains of any category.

In addition, a 50% discount was offered to children aged 10 to 17 for travel within the Russian Federation in second-class sleeping carriages in trains departing between 25 May and 1 June 2019.

For bookings made on or after 10 July, special fares were offered for some of FPC’s train services to and from Adler, Anapa and Novorossiysk for departure dates within the “velvet season”, i.e. between 7 October and 19 December 2019.

Regulated segment

In 2019, 14 global marketing campaigns were carried out in the regulated segment to offer discounts depending on berth location in third-class open sleeping carriages, discounts for children aged 10 to 17, discounts for fourth-class seating carriages and discounts for carriages with limited service options.

During the year, the following discounts off fares in third-class open sleeping carriages (upper side berths and upper berths at the end of the carriage) were offered up to 50%.

In addition, for bookings, children aged 10 to 17 were offered a 50% discount on domestic routes for third-class open sleeping carriages, fourth-class seating carriages, carriages with seats and second- and third-class motorised carriages for departures during the summer school holidays, i.e. between 1 June and 31 August.

Starting from 1 May and throughout the summer season, the following discounts were offered for carriages without bio-toilets and air conditioning: a 5% discount for third-class open sleeping carriages and a 10% discount for second-class sleeping carriages.

For bookings made on or after 10 July, discounts on certain types of berths were offered for some of FPC’s train services to and from Adler, Anapa and Novorossiysk for departure dates within the “velvet season”, i.e. between 7 October and 19 December 2019.

In 2019, over 4.5 million passengers benefitted from our global marketing campaigns involving third-class open sleeping carriages and fourth-class seating carriages; approximately 169,600 persons took advantage of our targeted marketing campaigns, and over 2.7 million passengers took our special offers for children aged 10 to 17.