Aeroflot’s traffic continues climb at a slower rate

(Photo by Aeroflot)

Aeroflot’s traffic continues growth, albeit at a slower rate than in May. Compared to the 12.4% year-on-year growth in May, June traffic showed 6.5% increase to 2.543 million passengers.

Traffic growth on domestic routes slowed from 20.3% in May to 6.3% in June to 1.271 million passengers. By contrast, traffic growth rate on international routes climbed slightly, from 5% in May to 6.6% in June. Notably, the number of passengers carried inside the country in June equalled international traffic.

Aeroflot’s operational performance since the beginning of the year have been showing a steady climb, up 12.2% YOY to 13.438 million passengers – up 18.3% on domestic and  6.7% on international lines.

However, a decline in growth rates is evident for Russia’s flagship carrier, as well as for the entire Aeroflot Group, which includes three subsidiaries- Rossiya, low-cost Pobeda and Aurora, which operates in the Far East. The total number of passengers served by the group in June grew 5.8% to 3.943 million, against 8.8% growth in May.

In the first half-year 2016 the group’s cumulative traffic grew 10.3% to 16.694 million passengers, whereas for the same period last year the traffic grew 11.5%.

In June cumulative traffic on domestic lines reached 11.602 million passengers, up 12.7% YOY, on international lines, 8.092 million passengers, up 7.1%.

Despite the slowdown, Aeroflot’s operational performance remains way ahead of the market, which is still plagued by a deep crisis. Russia’s main airline continues to benefit from it’s competitor Transaero leaving the market last year, which partly explains its success this year.

Other carriers from the top-5 list, particularly, the S7 Group and Ural Airlines also demonstrate positive dynamics. UTair also reported traffic growth of 14.3% in the first six months of this year.

In May Russian carriers’ cumulative traffic declined 14.3%. At the end of six months of 2016 in was down 6.5%.