Aeroflot freight recovers, on strength of domestic market

Aeroflot is back in the black, after cutting costs and seeing a rise in passenger numbers. On the cargo side, however, the results were mixed, with international freight down 1.7 percent, year-over-year, to 45,863 tonnes for the first seven months of 2016. July was especially grim, with tonnage down 8.9 percent, y-o-y, to 6,649 tonnes.

Conversely, domestic freight for the Russian carrier rose 29 percent to 54,856 tonnes for the first seven months of 2016, boosted by especially strong July numbers that saw freight rise more than 40 percent to 9,266 tonnes.

Revenue tonne kilometers (RTKs) were up across the board for the January-to-July period. On the international front, RTKs were up by 9.8 percent, y-o-y, to 2,880 million, while domestic RTKs rose by 14.9 percent to 1,692.9 million, compared to the seven-month period last year.

Aeroflot’s strong showing takes place despite the country’s ongoing economic crisis, caused by falling oil prices, international sanctions and a decline in travel between Ukraine and Turkey. “We maintained tight control of operating costs to offset the ongoing effects of exchange rate fluctuations,” explained deputy CEO for commerce and finance, Shamil Kurmashov, in a statement.

The carrier also benefitted from the absence of the country’s second-largest carrier, Transaero, which stopped flying last October.

The remarkable rise in domestic freight versus the decline in international stems from Russia’s falling trade turnover, as oil prices fall, imports grow more expensive in rubles and tit-for-tat sanctions gut the Russian economy.