Pobeda expecting traffic to rise 5% in 2024
MOSCOW. March 25 (Interfax) - Pobeda Airlines (part of Aeroflot Group ) plans to boost passenger traffic by 5% in 2024 compared to last year, the company's CEO Dmitry Tyshchuk said.
"We're planning a slight growth in traffic, because in principle we have all the capacities utilized. We plan an increase of 5% compared to last year," Tyshchuk told reporters.
At the end of last year, Pobeda's fleet received its 42nd Boeing 737-800 airplane, he said, and the aircraft will be put into operation in the near future. It previously was operated by now defunct airline Royal Flight.
In 2023, Pobeda's passenger traffic amounted to 13 million people, 11.5% more than a year earlier. In 2022, amid the imposition of sanctions on Russia, the figure fell by 19% to 11.7 million people. Because of the sanctions, the company lost three aircraft (they were arrested and seized by the lessor abroad), as well as a significant portion of international destinations.
Pobeda's overseas destinations currently include flights to Turkey, UAE, Belarus, Armenia and Uzbekistan, with flights to Osh (Kyrgyzstan) expected to be launched in April. "So far, there are no more plans to open international destinations," Tyshchuk said in response to a related question. "We have always had a greater share of domestic transportation - international transportation was a maximum of 26%. Now it is 13%, we will continue somewhere within these limits," he added.
"We will have net profit, but this is mainly due to the effect of the insurance settlement [regarding aircraft]," Tyshchuk said when asked about Pobeda's financial results for the year.
According to reporting for 2022, Pobeda saw 15 billion rubles of net profit to RAS - at the same time, the company saw almost eightfold growth in other income, which amounted to 47 billion rubles, including 15.1 billion rubles from state subsidies.
Pobeda is a low-cost airline of the Aeroflot group. It is based in Moscow's Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo airports. The carrier's fleet consists of Boeing 737-800s with only economy class cabins.