Aeroflot Group airlines strengthen their positions in June

(Simferopol airport)

According to preliminary data published by Russia’s aviation authority Rosaviatsiya, in June 2021 the country’s airlines carried collectively 10.9 million passengers, down 13.5 per cent on the same month of the pre-covid 2019. RPKs were 24.6 per cent below ‘norm’, at 23.3 billion.

Aeroflot Group airlines have managed to improve their positions in the ranking. Flag carrier Aeroflot ranked first with 2.11 million passengers transported. It is slowly increasing the gap from the largest privately-run airline S7 Airlines, which had been leading Russia’s air travel market for 12 months since the onset of the crisis in April 2020. S7 Airlines now ranks second, having served 1.6 million passengers in June. Aeroflot Group’s low-cost division Pobeda Airlines is closing in on S7 with 1.4 million passengers. It is now followed by sister carrier Rossiya Airlines, which served 1.1 million passengers outperforming – for the first time in several months –privately owned Ural Airlines, which carried 975,000 passengers.

In the first half of this year Russian airlines served 43.9 million passengers, which is still painful 23.9 per cent below 2019 levels. RPKs for the period were down 37.9 per cent at 90.5 billion.

In the first six months of 2021 Aeroflot has reclaimed its leadership position since the outbreak of the pandemic, although its traffic remains significantly below the pre-crisis levels.

Traffic in January through June 2021 (compared to same period in 2019)

1. (1) Aeroflot                     8.36 mln pax;    –53.0%
2. (2) S7 Airlines                 8.06 mln pax;      –1.2%
3. (4) Pobeda                      6.40 mln pax;    +40.0%
4. (3) Rossiya                       3.82 mln pax;    –24.9%
5. (5) Ural Airlines              3.76 mln pax;     –11.3%