Aeroflot reclaims leadership of the Russian market

According to preliminary data published by Russia’s aviation authority Rosaviatsiya, Russian airlines served collectively 7.2 million passengers, which is down 23 per cent on the pre-crisis level of April 2019. RPKs were down 38 per cent on the same month of the pre-COVID year, at 14.5 billion.

Last year, in April 2020 COVID-19 imposed restrictions resulted in a plunge in passenger numbers. The country’s airlines combined carried 739,000 passengers – roughly one tenth of this year’s April traffic.

After historic 13-month hiatus, Aeroflot reclaimed its traditional prime position in the Russian airlines’ ranking, although its traffic number is still less than a half of the pre-pandemic ‘normal’ due to persistently sluggish international travel. In April Russia’s national carrier served 1.37 million passengers, outperforming its privately-owned rival S7 Airlines. In turn, S7 Airlines’ traffic was roughly level with the pre-crisis numbers – 1.35 million passengers.

Russia’s only low-cost carrier Pobeda Airlines (part of Aeroflot Group) is proceeding with its victorious growth – in April its traffic surged to 1 million passengers, surpassing the ‘normal’ April 2019 result by a third.

Rossiya Airlines (also Aeroflot Group’s subsidiary) carried 636,000 passengers – down 20 per cent on the pre-crisis level. The last in the TOP-5 ranking is Yekaterinburg-based privately-owned Ural Airlines, which lost only 11.5 cent of the April 2019 level, and served 617,000 passengers.

TOP-5 Russian airlines by April 2021 traffic (compared to April 2019)

1. (1) Aeroflot 1.37 mln passengers; –55.8%

2. (2) S7 Airlines 1.35 mln passengers; –0.7%

3. (4) Pobeda 1.00 mln passengers; +31.6%

4. (3) Rossiya 0.63 mln passengers; –20.6%

5. (5) Ural 0.61 mln passengers; –11.5%

In total, between January and April 2021 Russian airlines carried 24.2 million passengers, which is level with the same period of 2020, but 29 per cent less than for the first four months of 2019

http://www.rusaviainsider.com

Photo:Brian Worthington