Aeroflot Group reports increased passenger traffic for January 2018

A total of 3.7 million were carried, up 7.7% year-on-year (Leonid Faerberg / Transport-Photo.ru)

Russia’s Aeroflot Group carried 3.7 million passengers In January 2018, up 7.7% year-on-year. Its traffic grew 8.4% domestically and 6.9% on international routes.

The group’s primary and eponymous subsidiary Aeroflot alone carried 2.5 million passengers, a year-on-year increase of 6.6%. The airline carried 9.8% more domestically compared to 2016; the international figures went up 4%.

The passenger load factor on domestic routes grew by 3.4 percentage points (p.p.) to 77.2% for the group and by 0.8 p.p. to 75.7% for Aeroflot. Quite not so internationally, where the group saw a fall of 1.1 p.p. to 77.3% and Russia’s flagship airline dipped 1.8 p.p. to 74.7%.

Aeroflot explains the international decrease by its capacity having grown faster than the actual revenue passenger kilometers due to increased flight frequencies, primarily on the European and US routes. In addition, there was a significant increase in the load factor in January 2017 driven by the appreciation of the Russian currency.

Aeroflot added four aircraft in January 2018: three Sukhoi Superjet 100s and one Boeing 737-800. This brought the carrier’s total fleet up to 228 airliners. There were no changes in the fleets of Aeroflot Group’s other subsidiaries: Aurora Airlines, Pobeda Airlines, and Rossiya Airlines. As of 31 January 2018, the group’s fleet stood at 329 airframes.