OREANDA-NEWS. On 19 August 2009 was announced, that according to January - June 2009 official results released by the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency, Transaero Airlines has reached the net second place in the country both in terms of passengers carried and RPK. In the first half of 2009 Transaero carried 1.951 million passengers, only 5.6% less than in the same period of 2008. Revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) reached 7,585 million, just a 4.8% decrease in comparison with the first half of 2008. Average seat load factor in the first six months of 2009 amounted to about 80%. Transaero’s share in the Russian airline market exceeded 16%. Meanwhile the overall downturn of the Russian air transport market in the first half of 2009 reached 18%.

Well - timed route planning strategy correction aimed at aggressive domestic network expansion, contributed greatly to Transaero’s stable operation in present economic and financial environment. In past 12 months number of domestic destinations in the carrier’s route network has increased by 2.5 times. New flights from Moscow Domodedovo airport have been launched to Anapa, Blagoveshchensk, Vladivostok, Irkutsk, Kazan, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Magadan, Omsk, Samara, Tomsk and Ufa.

Transaero's intra-Russia results in January - June 2009 period are the following: the number of passengers carried on domestic routes increased 56.4% in comparison with the same period of the last year. RPK increased 76.7% in comparison with the first six months of 2008. The share of domestic routes in total volume of Transaero’s transportation increased from 13% to 22%.

Transaero has always considered the development of the Far East routes as one of its priorities. In the past year the airline has launched flights from Moscow to three new destinations in this region as well as significantly increased flight frequencies on existing Far East routes, which currently enjoy steadily increasing demand. Besides, instead of Boeing 767, Transaero now operates more comfortable and capacious Boeing 777 aircraft (32% more seats) on certain Far East routes. Those measures allowed Transaero to increase transportation volumes on these routes by 96.6% in the first half of 2009 compared to the same period of 2008 and become the largest carrier on routes from Moscow to the Far East destinations.

“Currently, while maintaining the position of the second-largest Russian carrier on international routes, Transaero extensively expands its domestic network, - said Olga Pleshakova, Transaero Airlines General Director. - As a result, in the first half of 2009 our operational indicators proved to be much better than the market averages, and allowed us to become Number 2 in Russia by passenger volumes”.

Transaero plans to open additional routes within Russia by the end of the year.