Air cargo (Russian market)

2023: Reduced freight traffic by 23% to 467,373 tonnes

Russian airlines reduced cargo transportation in 2023 by almost a quarter (by 23%) in comparison with 2022 - to 467,373 tons. Of these, 337,563 tons are on domestic lines, 129,809 tons are on international ones. This is evidenced by the data of the Federal Air Transport Agency, published in early February 2024.

According to Vedomosti, the fall in the Russian air cargo market is primarily due to the fact that the once largest cargo airline in Russia, Air Bridge Cargo (ABC, part of the Volga-Dnepr group), did not carry cargo in 2023 due to the inability to operate flights to other countries. In 2022, she transported 91,034 tons of cargo, or 15% of the total traffic of Russian operators, the newspaper recalls.

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ABC boards were banned from international flights due to "cargo transportation for the Ministry of Defense." For some other companies, foreign airports are also unavailable due to double check-in. Domestic orders failed to compensate the international market, according to the publication of the publication.

The representative of Volga-Dnepr noted that the comparison of cargo transportation for 2022 and 2023 is not entirely correct, arguing that sanctions and a new model for the development of the industry have significantly affected statistics. Despite the difficulties, there are stable aircraft bridges to China, India and the UAE, on which export-import operations are carried out.

The general decline in cargo transportation also affected other large cargo airlines, such as Volga-Dnepr and Aviastar-TU, at the end of 2023 there was a decrease of 27% and 30%, respectively. These data indicate the challenges faced by Russian air carriers in the face of sanctions and changes in the global air cargo market, experts say.

The sanctions hit cargo aviation to a greater extent, in which every fifteenth flight ends in a frivolous incident due to the peculiarities of operation, said Pavel Gerasimov, a former specialist at the International Civil Aviation Organization.^[1]

2022: Decrease in cargo transportation by 59% to 599 thousand tons due to sanctions amid conflict in Ukraine

The total transportation of goods by Russian airlines in 2022 fell by 59%, to 599 thousand tons. According to this indicator, air transport rolled back to about the level of 2001, when the companies transported 614 thousand tons, and exceeded the level of 2000 - 547 thousand.

This situation arose due to international sanctions, which, after the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, limited the access of Russian cargo carriers to foreign markets and led to the risks of arrests of their aircraft.

2013

According to the results of three quarters of 2013, the transportation of goods and mail by Russian airlines increased by 1.6% - to 730 thousand tons. At the same time, cargo turnover decreased by 0.7% - to 3.69 million t-km. Analysts note that the reduction in cargo turnover is an all-Russian trend that is characteristic of all segments of the cargo transportation market.

In general, it is worth noting that air transportation of goods is a very promising and profitable direction for Russia. Aviation transport is able to quickly and reliably deliver cargo even to the most remote parts of the country, while as cargo it can be both specialized and perishable, and oversized. The main advantage of Russia is its unique and advantageous geographical location, which makes a number of cities centers of international transportation. However, in order to take full advantage of this advantage, it is necessary to create a modern fleet of cargo aircraft, both domestic and foreign production, build a developed infrastructure, and introduce the international e-Freight standard. In the air cargo market, there are a fairly large number of players who in most cases connect passenger and cargo traffic. At the same time, the first 15 airlines account for over 90% of the total volume of transported goods, the five leaders - more than 70%. Among them are Air Bridge Cargo, Aeroflot, Volga-Dnepr, Transaero and Siberia.

In case of effective development of this segment of the freight transportation market, Russia's role in global aviation logistics may increase from the current 1.4% of the total world market equal to billion, to 8% by 2015 and 16% by 2030, which in natural terms will amount to 4 and 25.6 billion, respectively.

2012

In 2012, the decline in industrial production in the country as a whole also affected the freight market, almost all areas of the industry showed lower growth rates than a year earlier. A similar trend was reflected in the air cargo market, which in 2012 grew by only 0.7% against 5.6% in 2011. In physical terms, the market in 2012 amounted to 989 thousand tons, cargo turnover - 5.1 billion t-km. Against the background of the overall indicators of cargo transportation by all modes of transport, which last year amounted to 8732 million tons, it can be noted that the share of air transport is very insignificant and is only 0.01% (data from DISCOVERY Research Group).

See also

• Passenger air travel