Russian airlines’ passenger traffic returns to double-digit growth

Russian airlines’ passenger numbers enjoyed a collective double-digit growth rate in September, after a brief short-term dip, Rosaviatsiya, the country’s aviation regulator reports.
Last month Russian airlines flew some 11.8 million passengers, up 10.4 per cent on September of 2017. The double-digit growth rate returned the year average to about 11 per cent, after a relatively shallow July and August period when traffic figures climbed by only 6.8 and 8.2 per cent respectively.
For the first nine months of the year, Russian airlines served 89.1 million passengers, up 10 per cent on the same timeframe in 2017. In the period, the seat load factor increased 1.3 percentage points to an impressive 90.7 per cent.
S7 Airlines, Russia’s third largest carrier, is the current market growth leader, having experienced a 19.4 per cent year-on-year improvement in September, to 1.2 million passengers. Its peak monthly performance of 21.7 per cent growth was achieved in April.
Unlike in the previous months, the first autumn month proved favourable to Utair Airlines, which saw its traffic climb 14.1 per cent to 784,000 passengers. National carrier Aeroflot’s results also improved – by 10.1 per cent to 3.3 million passengers. Ural Airlines showed a similar rate of climb, up 10 per cent to 978,000 passengers.
Rossiya Airlines, Russia’s second largest air carrier, having suffered stagnation in the first four months of this year, reached a 7.1 per cent climb rate in August, having carried 1.3 million passengers, and then slowed down again to 2.2 per cent.
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