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Airlines Flew Past Fuel Crisis
The surge in aviation kerosene prices hasn’t affected revenues of the airlines. Despite all expectations, the passenger air traffic in Russia grew by 22.6 percent on year in January through April. The income of passengers outpaces the price growth, the market players concluded, noting, however, that one and the same people make flights but they tend to do it more often now.
According to Transport Clearing Chamber, Russia’s airlines grew the passenger traffic by 22.6 percent on year to 13 million passengers from January through April. The passenger turnover was up 21.3 percent to 33 billion passenger-kilometers, while the cargo and mail deliveries soared 32.9 percent to 264,300 tons.
The pace has accelerated vs the previous year – the growth was 16.2 percent from January through April of 2007, and the passenger flow increased 18.6 percent taken for the year. The share of seat occupancy grew 0.3 percent points to 69.5 percent.
Transaero that stepped up the traffic by 44 percent to 791,500 passengers was one of the growth leaders in the first quarter. “We have widened the aircraft park [by two Boeing-747s and three Boeing-767s], while the overall number of completed flights grew by 34 percent,” said Transaero briefer Sergei Bykhal.
Aeroflot yields to Transaero in acceleration. It posted the Q1 passenger traffic of 1.99 million, which was only 16.8 percent more than in the first quarter of 2007. “We are primarily targeted at regular flights in traditional directions, where the market competition is very high, and cannot grow delivery capacity,” explained Aeroflot Deputy Director Lev Koshlyakov. “Besides, nowadays, the parameters of flight efficiency are more vital for us than the quantity.”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 13, 2008
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