The Koltsovo International Airport (member of the Airports of Regions Holding) serviced 1.136 million passengers in the first quarter of 2018, which is 21% above the figure in the like period of the last year. The passenger traffic exceeded one million people as of the end of the first quarter in the year for the first time in the airport’s history.
International destinations showed the biggest growth, by 38%. 345 thousand people took advantage of international flights in the first quarter. Domestic traffic surged 14% and totaled 791 thousand people.
Flights to resorts in Southeast Asia traditionally enjoyed higher demand of Ural residents during the winter period. TOP 10 most popular international destinations comprised Dubai, Phuket, Nha Trang, Prague, Dushanbe, U-Tapao, Goa, Osh, Beijing and Antalya. Steady growth in carriage volumes was recorded on resort routes to Dubai (+73%) and Phuket (+131%). New routes for the first quarter - Sharjah, Phu Quoc, Pardubice and Colombo - made their contribution into the traffic growth.
Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Sochi, Krasnoyarsk, Rostov-on-Don, Blagoveshchensk, Samara, Krasnodar and Simferopol constitute the top ten most popular domestic destinations. Attention is called to a significant increase of transportation volumes on flights to Sochi (by 65%), Krasnoyarsk (by 64%), Simferopol (plus 50%) and Blagoveshchensk - by 2.5 times. Rostov-on-Don deserves special mentioning. The destination has firmly become one of the most popular among Koltsovo passengers after the new Platov Airport in Rostov-on-Don started operations and the passenger traffic in it rose substantially in the first quarter and was over 15.6 thousand passengers.