The number of air passengers in the former USSR continued to drop last year, with only two of the 12 CIS countries exhibiting year-on-year growth, and some suffering losses of over 20%.
Russia accounted for 21.5 million of the 28 million passengers carried in the CIS in 1999, 76.6% of the total. Overall traffic across the 12 countries fell 5% compared to 1999. Only Uzbekistan (up 20% to 1.2 million) and Turkmenistan (up 7% to 970,000) showed gains. Some nations saw passenger numbers fall steeply, with Tadjikistan down 29% to 168,100, Kyrgystan and Georgia down 28% to 312,000 and 170,600 respectively, and Armenia down 27% to 347,100.
Former Soviet nations have suffered a massive 85% drop in passenger totals since 1990, when the 12 equivalent Aeroflot divisions carried 135 million people, of which Russian operations accounted for 90.7 million.
Source: Flight International
