Russian airlines’ traffic grew by 4.8% in September, helped by abnormally warm weather

:: Rossiya Airlines

Russian airlines carried a total of 10.7 million passengers in September, a 4.8% growth year-on-year, according to preliminary figures released by Rosaviatsia.

According to experts, air transport’s high demand was supported by abnormally warm weather.

The seat load factor increased by 0.9 p.p. and reached record 90.0%, indicating a shortage of capacity in the environment of international sanctions curbing current fleet’s growth.

Country’ top 5 carriers are headed by Aeroflot Group airlines – Aeroflot, LCC Pobeda and Rossiya, rounded off by privately-run S7 Airlines and Ural Airlines.

The Big Five carried a total of 7.5 million passengers (+6.8% year-on-year), with Aeroflot Group serving 5.3 million (+16.4%).

Interestingly, in September domestic traffic in Russia returned to a growth after a drop in August. Last month, airlines carried 8.2 million passengers inside the country, according to separately issued government statistics. This represents a 1.7% increase over same period of 2023.

International passenger traffic increased by 20% to 2.5 million.

The volume of cargo transported in September amounted to 44,100 tons, with the growth provided exclusively by international freight traffic, which is jumped by a record 42.5%, to 13,500 tons. The volume of domestic air cargo continued to fall for the third month in a row, having decreased in September by almost 2.0% to 30,600 tons.