Russian airports report 2017 results

Kazan demonstrated the highest growth rate at 37.1% (Kazan airport)

Russia has reported the 2017 performance results for the 15 largest airports. All those on the list, for the exception of Simferopol in Crimea, demonstrated a growth in passenger traffic last year.

Simferopol handled 5.129 million passengers, down 1.4% from 2016. It yielded to Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo airport, which welcomed 5.404 million travelers (25.7% up year-on-year).

Kazan boasted the highest growth at 37.1%, servicing 2.623 million. The traffic surge was due to the launch of new routes to Noyabrsk, Salekhard, Naryan-Mar, Novy Urengoy, and Kaliningrad (all of them in Russia), as well as to Riga (Latvia), Pardubice (the Czech Republic), and Bodrum (Turkey).

Kazan was closely followed by Rostov-on-Don, which saw its traffic increase 32% to 2.766 million passengers. Rostov was permanently closed in late 2017 as all operations transferred to the new airport, Platov, on December 7.

The top five Russian airports remained unchanged from 2016. The best growth rates were demonstrated by Vnukovo (18.139 million passengers, up 30.1% year-on-year), Pulkovo (16.126 million, up 21.6%), and Sheremetyevo (40,093 million, up 17.8%). The closing two were Domodedovo (30.7 million, up 7.6%) and Sochi (5.692 million, up 8.1%).

The top-15 newcomers were Krasnoyarsk (2.297 million passengers, up 26% on 2016) and Mineralnyye Vody (2.180 million, up 26.6%). These ousted Khabarovsk and Vladivostok from the ranking.

Top 15 Russian airports by traffic in 2017