Irkutsk Airport reports over 20% traffic surge

Passengers travelling to Irkutsk from 12 destinations in China are the main contributor to the airport's traffic growth (Photo by Irkutsk International Airport)

Irkutsk Airport has reported a 21.7% surge of its international traffic in July compared to the same month last year. Over 30,800 passengers out of the total of 52,849 passengers served on international destinations, were Chinese tourists. Irkutsk serves flights to and from 12 destinations in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Harbin, Shenyang etc.

Two Chinese carriers – China Eastern and Juneyao Airlines, which started flying to Irkutsk this year, have contributed to the traffic surge on these destinations.

Thailand holds the second position on the list of the most popular destinations – 7,369 passengers traveled to Bangkok and Phuket from Irkutsk so far this year.

Cam Ranh in Vietnam and Seoul were final destinations for 4,919 and 3,198 passengers, respectively.

Irkutsk International Airport (owned by the administration of Irkutsk region) serves the homonymous city in eastern Siberia and the large region that surrounds it. It has the total capacity of 1,500 passengers per hour. At the end of 2015 the airport handled 1,694 million passengers, down 2% from the previous year, and occupies 18th place in the rank of Russian airports by traffic.

Other Russian airports, such as St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo have also reported traffic growth on routes from China this year.