Traffic growth through Moscow airports slows in August

Sheremetyevo, Russia’s largest airport, saw its traffic grow 19.6% (Fyodor Borisov / Transport-photo.com)

Passenger traffic through the three airports of Moscow (Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo) continued to climb in August compared to the same month in 2016, albeit at a slower rate than in July 2017.

Vnukovo saw its traffic increase by 22.9% to 2.071 million passengers (against 31.5% in July); Domodedovo, by 5% to over exceeding 3.5 million (5.8% in July); Sheremetyevo, by 19.6% to 4.141 million (22.9% in July).

At Vnukovo, international traffic continued to grow faster than domestic passenger numbers; it increased by 77.3% in August to 875,000 passengers. The most popular destinations includes Antalya, Larnaca, Istanbul, Barcelona, Pathos, Dushanbe, Baku, and Heraklion. Domestic traffic grew by just 0.4% to 1.196 million passengers. The most popular destinations were Sochi, Simferopol, Anapa, Mineralnye Vody, St. Petersburg, Makhachkala, Krasnodar, Surgut, and Rostov-on-Don.

A similar trend was observed at Domodedovo, where international traffic grew 15% year-on-year, exceeding 1.6 million passengers. The most popular destinations were Antalya, Tivat, and Barcelona. Some 1.9 million passengers traveled on domestic routes, 2% down from the same month last year. The fastest growing routes within Russia were to Krasnodar, Kaliningrad, Ufa, Makhachkala, and Sabetta.

At Sheremetyevo, the trend got reversed: international traffic grew at a slower rate than domestic in August. The airport served 4.141 million passengers traveling abroad, up 18.3% year-on-year. Domestic traffic, although smaller in absolute figures at 1.798 million, grew faster at 21.3%. The most popular destinations out of Sheremetyevo in the past eight months were Paris, Tel Aviv, Prague, Beijing, Shanghai, St. Petersburg, Simferopol, Sochi, Yekaterinburg, and Krasnodar.