Aeroflot Group increased passenger traffic by almost a quarter this year

Group “Aeroflot”(Aeroflot, Rossiya, Pobeda airlines) increased the number of passengers carried in January-May by 23.5% compared to the same period in 2022, to 16.6 million people. This was reported in the group’s operating report, released on June 9.

In May, the positive dynamics was even stronger: the group’s airlines increased passenger traffic by 35.9% yoy to 3.7 million people.

The growth of transportation on domestic lines for five months amounted to 17.1% (13.3 million people were transported), on international lines – 57.9% (3.3 million people).

The current traffic volumes are significantly lower than the results of the pre-pandemic 2019: then in May, the Aeroflot Group served a total of 4.98 million passengers, in January-May – 22.5 million.

The passenger traffic of the parent airline of the group in May 2023 increased by 55%, to 1.99 million people, in five months – by 44.8% to 8.6 million people.

Seat occupancy remains at a record high. In May, according to the airline, it amounted to 83.4% (increased by 2.4 percentage points), and in the first five months it reached 85.7% (an increase of 7.6 percentage points year-on-year). The seat occupancy of the parent airline of the group in May amounted to 80.6% and 83.7% – according to the results of five months. For comparison: in May 2019, the percentage of seat occupancy was 77%, the average for the period January-May 2019 was 78.3%.

The press service of Aeroflot indicates that in 2022 flights with the countries of the CIS, the Middle East and Asia were restored, which made it possible to increase international traffic this year. “The development of domestic air transportation continued: the most popular destinations from Moscow, flights from Krasnoyarsk, Sochi (Aeroflot bases part of its fleet in these cities. – Vedomosti) and Mineralnye Vody. A contribution to the restoration of air transportation was also made by the Pobeda airline, which increased traffic compared to last year, ”said the representative of the airline.

He added that the high seat occupancy rate demonstrates a strong demand for air travel.

Note that other major air carriers such as S7, “Utair” And “Ural Airlines”, do not disclose traffic statistics in 2023.

Fedor Borisov, chief expert at the HSE Institute for Transport Economics and Transport Policy, notes that the growth in the airline’s passenger traffic is primarily due to the low base effect of previous years. “Aeroflot has been focused on international air transportation for many years, but since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the airline has been rebuilding its route network for the domestic market. Today, the domestic market is growing, and the carrier’s performance is growing along with it,” the expert explains.

At the same time, the high occupancy of the seats, in his opinion, indicates that the group “skillfully operates its fleet.” He added that it is impossible to predict an increase or decrease in passenger traffic for the entire 2023 at the beginning of the high season “in the current conditions.”

Alexander Volobuev took part in the preparation of the article