1 Aug 2024 17:14

Russian airline passenger traffic to grow 6.4% in summer season - Air Transport Agency head

MOSCOW. Aug 1 (Interfax) - Russian airline passenger traffic this summer season, which runs from April to October, will grow 6.4% to 73.3 million people, Dmitry Yadrov, head of the Federal Air Transport Agency, or Rosaviatsia, said at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

"We plan to transport 73.3 million passengers by the end of the season, by the end of the summer schedule, which is 6.4% more than last summer," Yadrov said. "I would like to mention particularly that 69% of the 73.3 million are flights to our 18 tourist regions, as designated by the Economic Development Ministry," he said.

Rosaviatsia has said airlines carried 40.4 million passengers in April-July, up 6.6% year-on-year.

Russian airlines carried 51.2 million passengers in January-June 2024, up 7.5% year-on-year, the Transport Ministry has said. This included 38.7 million on domestic flights, up 3.2%, with 2.2 million or 5.7% of them on subsidized routes. The share of interregional routes (bypassing Moscow) was 63.3%, Rosaviatsia said. It said international traffic grew 23.2% to 12.5 million passengers - Russia currently has direct flights to 36 countries.

Airlines are expected to carry 98.1 million passengers this year as a whole, Yadrov has said. This would be 7% lower than last year's 105.4 million. Yadrov said the outcome would depends, among other things, on S7's decision to take Airbus A320neo aircraft with American Pratt & Whitney engines out of service. Maintenance and repair of these engines has been complicated since anti-Russian sanctions were imposed.