Aeroflot expects passenger traffic to grow 4% to 47 mln in 2024

VLADIVOSTOK. Sept 14 (Interfax) - Aeroflot expects its passenger traffic to grow by more than 4% to at least 47 million in 2024, the Russian airline's CEO, Sergei Aleksandrovsky said.

"The baseline scenario for 2023 was 43 million [passengers]. By the middle of the year we understand that we can add, so we revised to 45 million. The target for next year is at least 47 million passengers," Aleksandrovsky told reporters at the Eastern Economic Forum.

The airline expects passenger traffic to break down into 20% international and 80% domestic flights, like this year, he said.

Asked about anticipated passenger traffic in September, Aleksandrovsky said the company expects the figure to be "no lower than June figures."

"June is the start of the active summer season. September is usually worse, but right now we're seeing a trend to be higher than the start of the season," he said.

Aeroflot Group, which includes flag carrier Aeroflot, as well as low-cost carrier Pobeda and Rossiya Airlines, saw its passenger traffic grow by 16% to 31.2 million in the first eight months of 2023.

Aleksandrovsky also said that ticket prices will not change much before the end of the year. "Right now, given that airlines have come out of the high season, prices have more or less stabilized. We don't expect significant deviations before the end of the year for certain," he said.

Next year, "taking into account the base reached in 2023, growth is expected at the level of inflation if there is not some extreme growth of other expenses - kerosene, airport costs, an increase in leasing rates and so on," Aleksandrovsky said.