Aeroflot has approved a strategy to carry 100 million passengers across the group’s airlines in 2023, when it will celebrate its centenary.
Titled “100 million passengers by our 100th anniversary” (or “100 by 100”), the strategy calls on the group’s low-cost carrier Pobeda to be a growth driver. It is expected to carry 25-30 million passengers annually by 2023.
Rossiya Airlines will also become a principal carrier, according to Aeroflot, and will aim to increase ‘social mobility on routes between Europe and Far East parts of Russia’.
Meanwhile, Aurora, the group’s Far East regional carrier, is expected to double operations by 2023.
As a whole, the group carrier 50.1 million passengers in 2017, placing it among Europe’s top five and the world’s top 20 largest aviation groups.
The second goal of the “100 by 100” strategy is to increase international transit traffic from 5 million passengers in 2017 to 10-15 million in 2023. Aeroflot claims it has “undisputable competitive advantages in the Europe-Asia transit segment”.
The group also plans to open more regional hubs across Russia in areas such as Sochi, Ekaterinburg and Novosibirsk, as well as an international hub in Krasnoyarsk. Aeroflot says this will make a ‘significant contribution’ to president Vladimir Putin’s decrees to expand inter-regional passenger routes so that 50 per cent of total scheduled domestic flights bypass Moscow by 2024.
In addition, Aeroflot will increase the share of Russian-built aircraft in its fleet and aims to invest in digital projects and technology such as artificial intelligence ‘to maximise operational efficiency’.
The full strategy can be found here.