Azerbaijan’s Baku airport reports 14 per cent traffic growth

Baku airport’s traffic growth rate has slowed compared to last year (Baku Airport)

Baku’s Heydar Aliyev Airport, which serves the capital city of Azerbaijan, handled 1.96 million passengers in the first half of this year, 14 per cent higher than in the same period of last year, the airport reports. However, the airport’s growth rate has continued to slide from the highs of a 31 per cent improvement in the first half of 2017 and a 20 per cent growth for the entire year.

More than 815,000 passengers, or 41.6 per cent of the airport’s total traffic for the period, travelled aboard the aircraft of AZAL, Azerbaijan’s national carrier.

The flagship airline’s share in Baku’s traffic has also decreased – from 54 per cent at the end of 2017, whereas Buta Airways, its low-cost subsidiary, which launched operations only last autumn, is already gaining momentum. In the period, it carried some 216,000 passengers and, jointly with parent AZAL, served 52.6 per cent of all passengers traveling through Baku airport.

Of the entire traffic, 1.96 million passengers (86 per cent) flew on international routes.

More than 30 carriers currently operate flights from country’s main gateway to some 40 destinations, although the number of airlines has shrunk from 55 in 2017. The most popular destinations are Istanbul, Moscow, Dubai, Kyiv, Doha, Sharjah, Tbilisi, Baghdad, Tehran and St Petersburg. Traffic to these destinations in the first six months of this year reached 1.25 million passengers.