Passenger traffic growth at Minsk keeps slowing down

The airport is home to Belarus's flag carrier Belavia (Leonid Faerberg / Transport-photo.com)

Belarus’s Minsk airport registered the slowest passenger traffic growth rate since the beginning of the year in October. The figure went up by a modest 9.4% year-on-year, to 332,000.

The airport hit the record in April this year with a 32.4% growth in passenger traffic compared to the same period in 2016. The growth dynamics started slowing down in May, although still remained in the double digits: it stood at 18.4%, 16%, and 13.6% for July, August, and September respectively.

The main Belarusian gateway has served 3.5 million passengers since the beginning of 2017, or 20.7% up year-on-year.

Minsk is the base airport for the national carrier Belavia, whose passenger traffic continues to grow actively. The airline served 24% more passengers year-on-year between January 1 and August 27, passing the two-millionth mark in late August. The average annual growth rate of 20% has been maintained due in part to the operator’s evolving transit network that brings new passenger to Minsk, as well as thanks to it having launched new routes. In 2018, the carrier is expecting the delivery of two new Embraer E195 regional airliners and a single Embraer E175.

Minsk will launch a new runway next year, which will be capable of receiving Airbus А380s.

Among Minsk’s partners are Aeroflot, Etihad Airways, Lufthansa, Ukraine International Airlines, Azerbaijan Airlines, and UTair Aviation. In late October the airport welcomed the first flight by Russian carrier Yamal Airlines.