You're reading: Ukrainian airlines cut passenger traffic by 6.1% in Jan-June 2013

Kyiv - Ukrainian airlines performing commercial passenger transportation (39 companies) in January-June 2013 reduced traffic by 6.1% compared to the same period in 2012, to 3.253 million people, the State Aviation Service of Ukraine has said.

In the first half of 2013, Ukrainian airlines carried out 42,300 commercial flights, which is 11.2% less than in the same period last year.

“The decline in passenger traffic by Ukrainian airlines was due to the termination of leading Ukrainian airline AeroSvit’s operations at the beginning of the year (its share of the total traffic in 2012 was almost 38%),” reads the report.

According to the State Aviation Service, despite the fact that in the first quarter of 2013 the total number of passengers carried by Ukrainian airlines fell by 20% compared to the same period in 2012, in the second quarter domestic air carriers managed to achieve last year’s level due to intensifying the fight for passengers with foreign air carriers.

“This was facilitated by the gradual recovery of traffic on routes, which were temporarily not served by the Ukrainian side, the active marketing policy of Ukrainian airlines (the opening of new routes, the increased frequency of flights), and the use of new aircraft,” reads a statement.

Almost 90% of traffic in the first half of 2013 was performed by the top five operators: Ukraine International Airlines (a 53.7% rise), Wizz Air Ukraine (a 52.1% rise), UTair-Ukraine (a 3.3-times rise), Windrose (a 4.4% rise), and Air Onix (13 times up).