Russian airlines’ passenger traffic climbs once again

In October 2016 Russian airlines carried almost 7.8 million passengers, up 4% year-o-year (photo by Leonid Faerberg / transport-photo.com)

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.