Passenger and cargo volumes grow

Published: 7/5/2000

According to Valery Okulov, General Director, Aeroflot carried 2.194m passengers in the first six months of 2000, a 5.6% increase on the same period on 1999. Most of the growth has come from the recovery in domestic routes, which were up by 13.4% in February alone. Aeroflot's cargo activities also staged a strong recovery by increasing by 26.4% to 49,063 tonnes. Driven by the recovery in domestic travel, Leonid Mokhov, Aeroflot's Marketing Director, speculated in March that the airline's passenger numbers for the full year could rise by 10-15% on the 4.5m passengers carried in 1999. According to Okulov the traffic growth has been helped by the improved Russian economy since the last quarter of 1999 and the airline's improved operation. The seat load factor at 60% represented an increase of 5% over the same period of 1999, with commercial load factors increasing by 4.6%. Alexander Zurabov, Aeroflot's First Deputy General Director, said the financial results for the first half will not be ready until 10th July but hinted that the financial performance had also improved for the period. The first five months of the year are expected to show increased average yields per RPK by 12% to 5.3 cents and yields per RTK by 8% to 45.8 cents. Aeroflot's fares on domestic routes are also recovering to pre-crisis levels. For example, a return Moscow -Novosibirsk economy class ticket on Aeroflot now costs around $230, having dropped as low as $100 after the 1998 crisis. Relatively subdued inflation and increasing volumes are also giving airlines the opportunity to push though increases and recover ground lost at the time of the crisis. According to Aeroflot's management, the airline is successfully implementing its strategy programme for optimising the route network, the fleet and new service levels. The airline has already developed the timetable for the winter schedule of 2001, which will bring $33-35m of additional revenues. An example of the programme's success, according to Zurabov, was the draconian cutting of routes to the USA, where seat load factors have begun to recover from their historically very low levels. The seat load factor on Moscow-New York flight was 87% in June 2000, a significant improvement on historic levels below 50% on some US flights. The Aeroflot fleet now operates 116 aircraft (six Il-96-300s, two B767s, ten B737s, two B777s, 11 A310s, 15 Il-62Ms, 15 Il-86s, four Tu-154Bs, 24 Tu-154Ms, 14 Tu-134s, 12 Il-76s and one DC-10). According to Aeroflot it will add six Il-96-300s in the future, but the airline's pressing need is for short-range aircraft because of the size and economy of the Tu-134, 154 and B737. However, the aircraft that will provide the replacement, the Tu-334, will not be available until 2003-2004. Okulov would not comment on the reported plans to lease foreign aircraft, but Alexei Chibrikov, Aeroflot's Director of Corporate Development, said Aeroflot might consider leasing foreign made short-range aircraft.

Article ID: 1913