Regional air traffic in Russia expected to grow 16.5% in 2013
NOVOSIBIRSK. Nov 27 (Interfax) - Regional airlines could see passenger numbers grow 16.5% to 8.5 million in 2013, Deputy Transport Minister Valery Okulov said on Wednesday at a meeting on the development of air services in the Siberia Federal District.
"We've for the first reached a figure of faster growth of regional services compared to long-haul services. Traditionally, regional services have grown by a barely measurable 2-3% per year," Okulov said.
He said that acquisition of aircraft by Russian airlines under a program where a portion of leasing costs are refunded surged 65% in 2013. "Twenty-six were acquired last year. This year we will reach 43 aircraft. The budget [for this program] was 2.1 billion rubles for this year. For next year it will be 2.4 billion rubles," Okulov said.
Thanks to a number of changes made to the program, unitary enterprises now have access to it. "We have also included in this program the possibility of subsidizing the acquisition of An-148 planes and Sukhoi SuperJets. Their share of the total program budget will be 30%," Okulov said.
Russian airlines overall might carry 83 million passengers this year, 14% more than last year, he said. "This is the highest growth in the world. It is followed by China with a little more than 9%, while in the world traffic [is growing] by about 5%," Okulov said.
Including foreign carriers, air passenger traffic in Russia could total 103 million passengers in 2013, Okulov said. The figure could reach 136 million passengers in 2018-2020.