Russian airlines’ traffic numbers grow further in August

Rossiya Airlines’ traffic growth rate hit a year-high 7.1 per cent in August (Fedor Leukhin // Wikimedia)

The collective passenger traffic performance of Russia’s airlines grew by 7.5 per cent in August compared to the same month last year, showing a slight improvement on a comparatively slow July, with its year-low 6.8 per cent growth. Last month, Russia’s three major airlines of Aeroflot, Rossiya Airlines and S7 Airlines, all continued to enjoy healthy growth rates.

According to aviation agency Rosaviatsiya’s preliminary report, Russian airlines collectively carried some 12.9 million passengers last month, with their average seat load factor hitting 90.2 per cent (an improvement of 0.3 pp).

Largest carrier Aeroflot’s results continue to climb, this month achieving an 11.7 year-on-year growth rate, reaching 3.6 million passengers. Sister carrier Rossiya Airlines (part of Aeroflot Group) demonstrated a year-high 7.1 per cent improvement, having served 1.5 million passengers.

Rival privately-owned S7 Airlines lagged slightly behind with 1.3 million passengers, but nevertheless continues to grow at a double-digit rate, up 21.5 per cent compared to August 2016.

In the period, Ural Airlines carried one million passengers, up 11.7 per cent year-on-year.

Russia’s airfreight segment enjoyed a steady overall 2.5 per cent growth to 96,700 tonnes.

For the eight-month period of January to August, Russian Airlines served collectively some 77.2 million passengers, up 9.9 per cent on the same months of 2017. The seat load factor increased 0.5 percentage points, reaching 84.2 per cent.

Over the eight-month period, the country’s airfreight segment grew by just one per cent to 728,400 tonnes.