Russian airlines carried nearly 50 mln passengers in H1 2025 compared to 51.1 mln a year earlier

MOSCOW. July 3 (Interfax) - Russian airlines carried nearly 50 million passengers in H1 2025, Russian Transport Minister Roman Starovoit said at a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and the government.

"Nearly 50 million passengers have already been transported in the first half of the year," Starovoit said.

According to data from the Federal Air Transport Agency, airline passenger traffic totaled over 51.1 million people in January-June 2024.

As reported with reference to data from the Association of Air Transport Operators (AEVT), total traffic fell 0.2% to 40.4 million people in January-May 2025. Domestic traffic within Russia fell 1.3% to 30.05 million people, including a 1.35% decline on interregional routes and a 1.01% drop on local routes. International traffic grew 3.3% to 10.34 million passengers. Growth was recorded only in long-haul international flights (+10%), while traffic to countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) decreased nearly 7%.

According to the Air Transport Agency's forecast, Russian airlines' passenger traffic may decrease nearly 2% to 109.7 million passengers in 2025.