As hundreds of Russians prepare to flee the city for holiday destinations such as Turkey, Egypt, and Cyprus on bargain package tours, reports in the media ring a dismal tone. They say charter flights' high accident rate might justify restricting air traffic to strictly commercial flights.

On Tuesday, an official for the Russian Transport Ministry disputed the media hype.

The official, one Vladimir Rudakov, told Russian news agency Interfax that safety is somewhat higher on commercial flights than on charter flights but denied that Russian charters would be discontinued, he said this is the norm.

With no comment on the actual figures involved, the official said they was no way of getting round the need for en-masse flights.

"Charter flights are used all over the world, there is no avoiding them", he noted.

The official went on to explain that that charter flights tended to be less safe due to the smaller size of the plane used for charters.

Insisting that safety standards currently concur with international norms, Rudakov said that in accordance with international practices, the Transport Ministry was taking all the necessary steps to maintain that level.