The Russian flag carrier is seeing a sharp decline in international traffic as the global recovery is exceptional.

If it is still difficult to assess the impact of European sanctions on the Russian economy, on the air side the consequences are clear and massive.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Europe and Great Britain banned Russia’s Aeroflot group (which has several companies) from flying over its airspace, while Washington banned it from sourcing parts exported from the United States. In response, Aeroflot suspended almost all of its international flights.

In the second quarter of 2022, the group thus recorded a decrease in international traffic by 57.8% and domestic traffic by 16.7%. In the number of passengers departing from Russian airports, the drop in one year reached 22% to 8.7 million passengers, including a 58% collapse in the case of international passengers (652,000 against 1.5 million a year ago).

Moscow forced the company to save

For Aeroflot alone, the number of passengers carried in the second quarter fell by 66% over the year to 408,000.

This weakening prompted the Kremlin to put its hand in its pocket. On July 13, the Russian state increased its stake in Aeroflot through a share issue that allowed the company to save its coffers.

Aeroflot said in a statement that the Russian state acquired more than 1.5 billion new shares in the group for 880 million euros.

According to the Interfax agency, the state’s share in the company thus varies from 57.34% to 73.77%.