Russian passenger air traffic continues to grow against all odds

Russian passenger air traffic continues to grow despite the persisting nationwide economic recession. Expectations are for the figure to exceed 100 million passengers in 2013, according to a forecast by Russia’s Transport Clearing House (TCH), the national agency charged with collecting air transport-related statistics. Russian airlines are projected to carry 38.2 million passengers domestically and 46.7 million people on international routes this year. A further 18.9 million passengers should be carried into or from Russia by foreign airlines.

This means that the Russian air transport industry will demonstrate a double-digit growth compared to 2012, when the volume of passenger traffic totaled 91.6 million, including 35.4 million people on domestic routes, 38.6 million on international flights carried by Russian carriers, and 17.6 million carried by foreign airlines. The industry on the whole has seen a threefold increase in traffic volumes for the last 10 years since 2003, when a total of 34.6 million passengers was carried, says TCH Vice-President Marina Bukalova. She also notes that the share of international traffic will hit 63% in 2013 against 61% a year before, and is likely to continue its domination in future as more direct international flights get launched from Russian regions thus taking Moscow as the country’s major hub out of the equation.

The TCH expectations have so far been confirmed by industry statistics. According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, Russian airlines carried 65.2 million passengers on domestic and international routes in January through September, or 14.7% up year-on-year. Passenger turnover saw a 16% increase to to 172.9 billion passenger-kilometers; the passenger load factor grew by 1.4%, reaching 80.8%.