Aeroflot Group increased passenger transportation by 15% over three quarters

Group “Aeroflot(airlines Rossiya, Pobeda and Aeroflot itself) transported 4.6 million passengers on all routes in September 2023, according to the carrier’s monthly report. This is an increase of 4.7% compared to September 2022. In the nine months of this year, the group’s passenger traffic amounted to 35.8 million people, which is 14.6% more than the same period last year.

Aeroflot airline also continues to increase traffic: by 19.2% in January-September (almost 19 million passengers), and by 2.1% in September (2.5 million people).

The growth dynamics of the group’s traffic on international (international) and domestic (domestic) airlines varies significantly. Thus, passenger traffic on international airlines last September increased year-on-year by 86.5% to 920,100 people, over nine months – by 78.9% to 6.9 million people, according to the group’s report. Over three quarters, domestic air routes carried 29 million passengers (+5.6%), and in September – 3.7 million (a year-on-year decline of 5.7%). The group explains this by the “restoration of the international network”: some passengers are flowing to new foreign destinations that airlines are opening.

The development of the international direction became possible after the completion of the procedure for the so-called insurance settlement with aircraft “Aeroflot” In early September, the company reported the purchase of 18 aircraft and five aircraft engines that previously belonged to the Irish AerCap. Sources estimated the cost of these aircraft at 40-50 billion rubles. Then at the beginning of October “Aeroflot» closed a deal with Irish SMBC Aviation Capital for another 17 aircraft. The lessor reported that he received $710 million for them.

This year Aeroflot opened flights from Moscow to Cuba (Varadero), from Novosibirsk and Khabarovsk to Phuket (Thailand). By the end of the year, flights from Moscow to Havana, Hong Kong and the island of Mauritius will be launched, as well as flights from Kazan, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg to Dubai, and from St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg to Phuket.

Russian airlines lost the opportunity to fly to most foreign destinations after the start of the SVO in February 2022. Foreign aircraft, by decision of the government, remained in the fleets of domestic operators and received Russian registration. But since in most cases these ships were not discharged from foreign registries, this gave the aviation authorities of other countries a reason not to allow such aircraft into their airspace. For example, this is what China did, which is considered the most promising market for Russian carriers in the absence of the opportunity to fly to Europe.

Executive Director of Aviaport Oleg Panteleev notes that the trend of redistributing the group’s passenger traffic from domestic to international airlines clearly emerged in August. It coincided with the cleansing of a significant part of the carrier’s fleet, when “Aeroflot» was able to use such aircraft for flights to countries that have banned flights of aircraft with dual registration.

“Traditionally, Aeroflot was focused on international flights and was the country’s leader in these markets. Now he is returning to his traditional business model,” explains the expert.

Panteleev says that the fundamental competitive advantage “Aeroflot» remains the largest fleet of wide-body aircraft on which you can fly to foreign countries, in particular to Southeast Asia. This will allow the group, in conditions of high competition and low profit rates in the domestic air transportation market, to maintain financial performance, focusing on international transportation.

“Taking into account the increase in the number of passengers transported since the beginning of the year by 14.6% across the group, it is logical to assume that in the absence of force majeure, passenger traffic at the end of the year will be “Aeroflot“will exceed last year’s figures,” the expert added. In 2023, the group transported 40.7 million passengers.