Passenger traffic on domestic airlines has reached its highest value in the last 15 years and the volume of domestic passenger air travel in January-April 2023 increased by 15.5% to 22.5 million people compared to the same period last year. This is reported by RBC with reference to Rosaviatsia data.
This is the highest figure for the past 15 years, the previous record – 21.1 million passengers – was recorded in 2021, the publication notes.
Passenger traffic on international airlines in the first four months of this year was 6.3 million, up 27.5% on 2022, but 54.3% less than the record year of 2019. Russian airlines accounted for 40% of international traffic in 2019 and 22% in 2023.
The closure of international markets following the start of SWOs in Ukraine has helped domestic carriers turn their attention to domestic destinations, which had previously been undervalued. For example, Evgeny Yankilevich, general director of Tolmachevo Airport, points out that flights were opened from Novosibirsk to Makhachkala and Grozny, which did not exist even in the Soviet years.
According to Dmitry Kudelkin, CEO of S7 Group, the main trend now is a “significant increase” in domestic tourism. In 2022, a “very effective, large-scale” program of subsidizing domestic air travel was also realized, the top manager said in an interview with RBC at the end of May. First and foremost, it is about reimbursing Russian airlines for operating costs to perform flights within Russia in the face of external sanctions pressure. Between April 2022 and March 2023, airlines received a total of RUB 125.3bn.
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