Russian airlines’ traffic growth rate slows down towards the end of the year

In November Rossiya Airlines saw traffic numbers shrink to 612,000 passengers, five per cent worse than in the same month of last year (Vnukovo airport)

Russia’s airlines carried a collective 119.2 million passengers in the first 11 months of this year, achieving a 10.6 per cent average traffic growth rate compared to the same period in 2018. In the period, RPKs increased by 13 per cent, reaching 300 billion, according to the latest preliminary data released by Rosaviatsiya, the country’s aviation authority.

In November alone, Russian carriers served more than 8.9 million passengers, which is just a four per cent year-on-year increase. RPKs improved by nine per cent year-on-year for the month, to 23.6 billion.

Aeroflot, the country’s largest airline and national flag carrier, remained roughly level with last year’s November performance, having served 2.8 million passengers in the month. At the same time, its sister carrier Rossiya Airlines saw traffic numbers shrink to 612,000 passengers, five per cent worse than in the same month of last year, dropping it to fifth place in the ranking list of top airlines.

Two airlines from the top-five list led the market in terms of traffic growth – the privately-owned S7 Airlines’ performance (now includes traffic of sister carrier Globus) surged by 47 per reaching 1.2 million passengers in the period and Pobeda, Aeroflot’s low-cost subsidiary, processed 871,000 passengers, a 37 per cent year-on-year improvement. Currently the fourth largest, Ural Airlines, carried 692,000 passengers, up by 12 per cent on November 2018.