Russian airlines in 2022 reduced transportation by 14% to 95 million passengers

According to the results of 2022, Russian airlines transported a total of 95.1 million passengers, follows from the closed statistics of the Federal Air Transport Agency, which Vedomosti got acquainted with. A source familiar with preliminary air travel statistics for last year says the figure is “very close to this figure.” Thus, the final passenger traffic in 2022 was 16 million people (14.3%) less than a year earlier, and 5 million below the bar set in March 2022 by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

As of December 2022, there were 7.1 million passengers carried, which is 1.1 million people (13%) less than in December of the year before last. As Vedomosti reported on December 26, 2022, in the first 11 months of the year, passenger traffic amounted to 88 million people.

The passenger turnover of domestic carriers over the past year amounted to 227.7 billion passenger-kilometers, which is 6.4% lower than in 2021. The percentage of seat occupancy, on the contrary, increased, amounting to 84% (against 81.5% in 2021) . The indicator of commercial loading of flights also increased. Last year, it was 70.6% against 65.4% in 2021.

Vedomosti sent a request to the Federal Air Transport Agency.

In March last year, Putin said that the volume of domestic air travel in 2022 “should be at least 100 million people.” But in November, Russian Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev said that airlines would be able to transport no more than 94-96 million people a year. If not for the closure of 11 airports in the south of the country, airlines could carry 19 million more people, he stressed.

Since the beginning of the NWO in Ukraine at the end of February, 11 destinations in the south of Russia have dropped out of the flight program of Russian airlines. These are Anapa, Bryansk, Belgorod, Gelendzhik, Voronezh, Kursk, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, Lipetsk, Simferopol and Elista. Flights to these airports were stopped by the Federal Air Transport Agency for security reasons. The current restriction is valid until January 14, 2023.

In March, when the bar was announced at 100 million passengers, far from all sanctions were imposed on Russia and the domestic aviation industry, Roman Gusarov, editor-in-chief of the Avia.ru portal, reminds. In his opinion, taking into account all the restrictions, the achieved indicator for transportation is a good result. Gusarov notes that the increased percentage of seat occupancy and payload in 2022 suggests that the aircraft were operating more efficiently than a year earlier. “This means that the planes were loaded and did not fly half empty, as it used to be,” he summed up.

After the start of the NWO, the EU, the UK and the US imposed sanctions against the Russian aviation industry, including a complete ban on the supply of aircraft and components. Boeing and Airbus aircraft, which form the basis of the Russian fleet, fell under it. The insurance and maintenance of these aircraft (ACs) was banned, and foreign leasing companies began to withdraw aircraft already delivered. Also, unfriendly countries closed their airspace to aircraft from Russia, and Russia, in response, banned flights from airlines from these states.

The number of passengers carried in 2023 will depend directly on the amount of subsidies airlines receive, independent aviation expert Alexei Komarov is sure. “This is not a question of available capacity and the number of seats that airlines can put on the schedule, but a question of what prices tickets will be sold at,” the expert explains. According to him, even this year’s experience has shown that demand is not very elastic, and with an increase in prices, the demand for tickets will fall sharply.

In 2022, 100 billion rubles were allocated to subsidize domestic transportation, which the Federal Air Transport Agency distributed among 32 airlines, of which half of the funds were received by the group “Aeroflot“. Carriers were also compensated 19.4 billion rubles. for the return of tickets for flights canceled due to external restrictions. Another 2.9 billion rubles. was distributed among cargo airlines. In total, according to the Federal Air Transport Agency, the domestic aviation industry received a record 172 billion rubles last year. subsidies from the budget.

For 2023, the government has allocated 25.3 billion rubles so far. to support air carriers. On January 12, Rosaviatsia began selecting companies for the right to receive subsidies. Under this measure, airlines will receive 1.11 rubles. for each completed passenger-kilometre on domestic routes. At the same time, the expected passenger turnover should remain at a level of at least 90% of the figure for the same period in 2022. As a result, carriers should ensure a total passenger turnover of at least 22.2 billion passenger-kilometers.