Russian airlines’ passenger traffic climbs once again

In October 2016 passenger traffic carried by Russian airlines demonstrated growth for the first time in many months. According to Federal Air Transport Agency’s preliminary data, the traffic increased 4% year-on-year, and almost reached 7.8 million passengers.
FATA provides data on traffic trends demonstrated by Russia’s largest carriers, all of which boast steady growth. Aeroflot’s traffic in October 2016 grew 11.2%, S7 Airlines demonstrated growth of 9.8%, UTair, 28.1% and Ural Airlines, 14.5%. Due to the merger with it sister carriers from Aeroflot Group, Donavia and Orenair, Rossiya showed a sharp year-on-year traffic increase of 113%.
Whereas the news of the final reversal of the trend, which has dominated the Russian market for over a year, may come through as encouraging, there is an assumption that the positive dynamic is the result of a plunge in passenger traffic last year caused by Transaero’s bankruptcy in October.
October 2015 was the last month that showed slight year-on-year growth of passenger numbers (0.5% over October 2014). Starting from November last year the traffic has been sliding continuously. The only exception was in February 2016, when the traffic jumped 0.9% over February 2015.
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