Russia’s international traffic fell by 26.6% in July to 3.6 million passengers, according to Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviatsia. Total international and domestic traffic reached 10.1 million, down by 10.3% YoY.
In January-July Russian airlines carried 48.2 million passengers, down by 8.2% YoY. International traffic dropped by 26.7% to 17 million, domestic increased by 6.6% to 31.1 million. The international traffic decrease was due to the flight ban to Egypt and a charter flight ban to Turkey. The relaunch of Turkey charter flights was announced in early July after Russia’s president Vladimir Putin told the government to resume selling packaged holidays to Turkey, but the final decision was postponed to the end of August.
The top five Russian carriers reported traffic increases in January-July despite the total downturn.
Aeroflot Airline carried 16.2 million passengers, up by 10.9%. Sibir Airline, a part of S7 Group, carried 5.4 million, up by 19.7% YoY. Aeroflot subsidiary, Saint Petersburg Rossiya Airline, transported 4 million passengers, up by 39% YoY. However, OrenAir and Donavia, the subsidiaries that are merging with Rossiya Airline, reported a significant decrease in traffic. UTair Airline, the fourth biggest carrier in Russia, transported 3.6 million passengers, up by 13.8% YoY. Yekaterinburg-based Ural Airlines carried 3.5 million passengers, up by 17.7% YoY. (Russian Aviation/Business World Magazine)
