Russian airlines carry 63.9 million passengers in January-August

Russian airlines carried 63.9 million passengers during the first eight months of 2015, up 0.4% year-over-year (YOY). In August passenger numbers grew 2.3% to 11.5 million, continuing a trend of the previous months.

January-August international traffic was down 13.6% compared to the year-ago period to 28.2 million, according to Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency. Domestic traffic grew 15.2% to 35.7 million. Passenger load factor decreased 0.3 percentage points to 80.7%.

Also in January-August, Aeroflot carried 17.3 million, up 10.2% YOY. Transaero, which is to be acquired by Aeroflot, carried 9.4 million, up 3.6% from the year-ago period. Saint Petersburg-based Rossiya, an Aeroflot Group member, carried 3.4 million, down 0.9% YOY. S7 Airlines carried 5.5 million, up 1% YOY, while Globus Airline, a member of S7 Group, carried 1.6 million passengers, up 18.9%. UTair carried 3.8 million, down 38.7% YOY.