JSC Aeroflot announced its passenger traffic for May 2014.
Passenger traffic in May 2014 totalled 1.9 million. This represented 13.7% year-on-year growth, significantly above the overall Russian industry growth rate for the period of 4.8%. This increase was primarily due to a 28.8% year-on-year rise in domestic traffic, driven in part by increasing flights on high-demand routes and adding available capacity. International traffic rose 2.3% year-on-year in May 2014. This modest growth was the result of reduced capacity on tourism routes (Larnaca, Heraklion and Antalya) following the withdrawal of Il-96 aircrafts from the fleet.
As of now, the Company’s uses more efficient and smaller capacity aircraft (A-320) and no longer operates blocked-off charter flights (the least profitable capacity segment) on these routes. Lower frequency of flights to Kiev and Odessa and cancellation of flights to Donetsk and Kharkov as well as reclassification of flights to Simferopol as domestic were among other factors impacting international traffic. For 5M 2014, passenger traffic totalled 8.8 mln, a 15.9% year-on-year increase and faster than the 8.6% year-on-year increase for the industry as a whole.
Revenue passenger kilometres (“RPK”) for May 2014 totalled 5.4 bln, a year-on-year increase of 13.3%. RPKs for domestic flights were up 23.4% year-on-year, while RPKs on international flights rose 7.9% year-on-year. RPK growth for the industry as a whole was 2.0% year-on-year. For 5M 2014, the Company’s RPKs increased 12.5% year-on-year to 25.2 bln. This growth was also considerably faster than the 3.2% year-on-year increase for the industry as a whole.
In the first five months of 2014 the Company expanded its fleet, including 13 new Airbus A320s, two new Boeing 737-800 and six new Boeing 777-300ERs. These additions contributed to a 12.5% year-on-year rise in available seat kilometres (“ASK”) for May 2014 and a 13.9% year-on-year increase for 5M 2014. The new factory-direct planes also contributed to the ongoing modernisation of the fleet, which is now one of the youngest in Europe.
