Russian airlines’ April passenger traffic growth remains high at 12 per cent

In April, the privately-owned S7 Airlines outperformed the mighty Aeroflot in terms of passenger growth since the start of the year (Leonid Faerberg)

According to an April 2019 preliminary report issued by the national Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya), Russian airlines collectively carried some 8.97 million passengers in the month, a healthy 12.1 per cent year-on-year increase.

All top five of Russia’s airlines experienced good growth in the month. Flag carrier Aeroflot remains the undisputed leader, with 3.1 million passengers (+8.3 per cent). S7 Airlines, Russia’s largest private airline, remains in second, having transported one million passengers in April, an impressive 21.1 per cent increase on a year earlier. Rossiya Airlines, a member of the Aeroflot Group, moved up to third place after returning to double-digit growth (+10.7 per cent), having transported some 801,000 people during April, the carrier’s best growth rate in many months.

Russia’s only low-cost carrier (LLC) Pobeda is the leader in terms of passenger growth among the top five (+45.3 per cent), with its flights used by 760,000 passengers, placing this Aeroflot Group carrier in fourth position.

Ural Airlines remains in fifth place. Last month, 697,000 passengers used its services, which is a 9.3 per year-on-year increase.

Collectively, Russian airlines’ RPKs reached 23.26 billion in April.