Russia’s Ural Airlines passenger traffic fell one per cent short of pre-crisis levels

:: Airbus

Russia’s privately-run Ural Airlines (U6) carried 9.522 million passengers in 2024, increasing the total passenger traffic by 1% year-on-year.

The Yekaterinburg-based carrier fell 1% short of the 2019 level with passenger kilometers exceeding the pre-crisis level.

Just like five years ago, the U6 ranks fifth in the Russia’s Top-5 largest air carriers.

Despite a tiny difference in total passenger traffic, the ratio of traffic on domestic and international routes has changed significantly over the year.

Having settled the ownership dispute of its 19 Airbus A320 family aircraft with a Western lessor, Ural Airlines significantly increased its revenue-generating international flying.

Domestic traffic decreased by 18% to 5.528 mln passengers in 2024.

At the same time, international traffic skyrocketed 300 times – from 3,000 to 969,460 in a year. Flights to the CIS counties saw a 14% improvement with 3.025 million passengers carried.

Ural Airlines’ route network was added with seven new international destinations: from Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok, the airline launched Beijing service, from Moscow (Domodedovo) to Istanbul and Samarkand, from Sochi to Dubai, from Zhukovsky and Sochi to Baku.