Passenger traffic up 15.2% in Russia

During the first nine months of 2012, Russian airlines carried 57 million passengers – an increase of 15.2% compared to the year-ago period. The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency/Rosaviatsia reported that international traffic was up 22.2% to 29.9 million passengers and domestic traffic increased 8.3% to 27 million. Load factor was 79.4%, up 1.6 points, while Russia’s five biggest airlines expanded their total market share to 62.4% from 56.4%. Aeroflot passenger traffic rose by 26.1% during the period and the airline carried 13.3 million passengers. Transaero Airlines carried 8.07 million passengers, up 23.1%. UTair carried 5.9 million passengers, up 43.1%.