Russian airlines 2024 traffic exceeds the pre-sanctions level

: Ural Airlines

In 2024 Russian airlines carried collectively 111.067 million passengers, according to official data published by the country’s aviation regulator Rosaviatsiya. This is 605,000 more passengers than in 2021 – the last year, when Russian carriers had sanctions-free operations. Sanctions cut them off Western-built aircraft and maintenance services, as well as a great deal of international destinations.

The traffic growth was achieved through an increase in international traffic by 15 per cent to nearly 27 million passengers – a development that is the result of Russian airlines clearing their aircraft of the dual registration, which made their operation on some international routes impossible.

As of today, Russian carriers have managed to release 360 jets from foreign registers – of total number of nearly 800 aircraft that were registered outside Russia by March 2022. This brings the total, including the fleet of Russian-made Superjet 100 regional jets, to about 500 aircraft, with which to fly internationally.

The remaining 84.3 million passengers were transported domestically, exceeding the official forecasts – but still below 2021 record level (87.5 million passengers).

Among the TOP-5 largest airlines, only S7 Airlines saw a decline in traffic numbers compared to the previous year – this was due to grounding of its Airbus A320neo family aircraft, plagued by the same problems with PW1100 GTF engines as most operators of the type around the world.

Other market leaders managed to improve their operational performance – Rossiya by almost 27%, Aeroflot – by 19.3%, Pobeda – by 5% and Ural Airlines – by 1%.

RUSSIA’S FIVE LARGEST CARRIERS BY 2024 PASSENGER TRAFFIC

Airline | 2024 Traffic, PAX | % to 2023  | Share of Russia’s total traffic, %

Aeroflot    30.1 mln     +19.3%     27.0%

Pobeda       13.7 mln     +5.0%       12.3%

S7 Airlines       12.9 mln    –18.9%   11.6%

Rossiya         11.5 mln    +26.8%     10.3%

Ural Airlines    9.5 mln      +1.2%       8.5%

Total  77.7 mln    69.6%

Source: Rosaviatsiya

Collectively, the TOP-5 airlines served 77.7 million passengers, representing a 69.6% of the total traffic (up from 68.9% last year).

However, only Aeroflot Group’s three airlines (Aeroflot, Rossiya and LCC Pobeda) managed to grow their market share from 44.9 per cent to 49.5 per cent. The other two, privately owned carriers, saw their share decline – S7 Airlines from 15 to 11.6 per cent and Ural Airlines from 8.9 to 8.5 per cent.