Moscow airports grew at different pace in January 2018

Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo demonstrated positive dynamics, whereas Domodedovo’s traffic slowed down (Vnukovo Airport)

The traffic growth rates at Moscow’s Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo, and Vnukovo airports were extremely disparate in January 2018.

Vnukovo demonstrated the best results with a 25.5% improvement in traffic figures on the same month in 2017. In absolute figures, the airport served 1.355 million passengers. Vnukovo attributes the success to increased average daily flying times and seat occupancy of UTair, airport’s anchor carrier. Among other contributing factors are continous fleet expansion of Pobeda, which allowed Russia’s only low-cost  carrier to expand its route network and increase the number of flights and traffic. The high growth rate of Turkish Airlines was also a factor, as was the activity of Rossiya Airlines, Russia’s second biggest carrier.

International traffic through Vnukovo demonstrated the most remarkable growth at 47.3% year-on-year to 411,100 passengers. The most popular were sunny destinations: Phuket, Goa, Bangkok, Dubai, Punta Cana, and Larnaca. Domestically, the gateway served 944,400 passengers (up 17.9%), with St. Petersburg, Sochi, Krasnodar, Makhachkala, Rostov-on-Don, and Mineralnyye Vody being the top destinations.

Passenger traffic at Domodedovo declined some 1% year-on-year in January to 2.07 million. This might be attributed to the collapse of VIM-avia, big leasure DME-based carrier, which ceased opeartions last October. During first month of 2018 the airport served 862,000 international passengers (1,8% less compared to last year), mostly those traveling to Dubai, Antalya, Doha, Barcelona, and Nha Trang. Domestic traffic remained virtually unchanged at 1.2 million passengers, with Penza, Simferopol, Kemerovo, Samara, and Stavropol being the most popular destinations.

Sheremetyevo, Russia’s biggest airport, reported a notable 12.6% increase in passenger numbers in January at 3.570 million,  driven by activity of its largest tenants Aeroflot, Nordwind, Air France, Royal Flight, Air Astana, KLM. Domestic traffic went up by 19% to hit 1.4 million. The most popular destinations included St. Petersburg, Sochi, Yekaterinburg, Simferopol, and Krasnodar. International traffic rose by 7.6% to 1.650 million, mostly to Paris, Prague, Yerevan, Bangkok, and Tel Aviv.