Increases in passenger and cargo traffic (250 words)

Published: 8/22/2000

Aeroflot has reported that it carried 2,784,000 passengers in the first seven months of 2000, an increase of 7.5% on the same period of 1999, with seat factor rising by 5.5% to 62.8%. Cargo traffic in the same period also increased for the airline, with volumes up by 24.3% to 57,400 tonnes with a commercial load factor of 53.1% an increase of 4.7% on the same period in 1999. According to the airline, and obviously mindful of the potential creation of GDRs based on Aeroflot shares, the increase in traffic surpassed its expectations, but modestly added that the improvements reflected the success of the airline's restructuring plan linked with the general improvement in the Russian economy and the steady recovery of traffic that the airline says it has seen since September of last year. The comparison of the airline's six month figures against those at seven, tends to support this, with the airline recording improvements of 5.6% in passenger traffic at the half-year stage and 26.4% in cargo. In part, the July recovery reflects the growing consumer confidence as the memory and impact of the financial crisis, which heavily affected traffic during the summer period of 1999, recedes and Russian's spending power begins to recover. It seems likely that the figures for August will show similar improvement if not slightly better figures, as August is the peak of the vacation season and reports from other carriers have suggested brisk business with high load factors.

Article ID: 2014