During first eight months of the year, Aeroflot transported 31.2 million passengersbe one 16% increase compared to the same period last year, which included the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and sanctions imposed by the West.
“The base case for 2023 was 43 million passengers. Mid-year we realized we could add more, and so we adjusted (the forecast) to 45 million passengers. The goal for next year is to reach at least 47 million passengers“, said Sergei Aleksandrovsky, CEO of Aeroflot, quoted the Russian news agency Interfax.
Banned from the skies of the European Union and a majority of countries in the northern hemisphere following the Russian military invasion in Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian national airline has reoriented its leisure network towards nearby countries from Moscow, like Cuba or Venezuela, or from neutral countries like Thailand, Turkey or the United Arab Emirates.
For its 2023/2024 schedule, Aeroflot announces up to 27 weekly flights to Thailand – serving the Thai capital Bangkok and the tourist peninsula of Phuket. Another sign of its resilience, it plans to soon serve Mauritius, after around 30 years of absence. From December 23, Aeroflot will connect Moscow-Sheremetyevo Airport to Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolamles International Airport in Mauritius, with two weekly flights, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, by Boeing 777-300ER. In 2019, the year before the Covid pandemic, some 11,000 Russian tourists visited the large island in the Indian Ocean.
