OREANDA-NEWS. Aeroflot is among the top five European airlines for revenue seat kilometres (RSK) and rate of growth, according to Airline Business magazine’s 2014 review of global civil aviation.

Aeroflot’s RSK for 2014 was 67.12 billion passenger kilometres, 11.4% greater than the previous year. In absolute terms this puts the company in 5th place in Europe, and in 4th place in terms of its growth rate — overtaking leading carriers such as Air France-KLM, Lufthansa, and British Airways. The average rate of growth for RSK in Europe was 6.2% (including budget carriers).

Aeroflot was also named among Europe’s top-5 for available seat kilometres (ASK), which was 85.82 billion passenger kilometres in 2014, 12.3% up on 2013. Aeroflot made the top-5 on all these indicators for the third year running — the only Russian carrier to make the list.

Aeroflot retained these leading international positions despite the challenging environment for the sector resulting from the worsening economic situation and rouble exchange rate. Passenger load factor was 78.2% — an outstanding result given the broader fall in demand on the Russian air travel market.

Both Aeroflot and Aeroflot Group are outperforming average global growth rates in key areas. In 2014, Aeroflot carried 23.6 million passengers — 13% more than in 2013. The total number of passengers carried by the Group amounted to 34.7 million, 10.7% higher than the previous year. At the same time, Airline Business data shows that the average growth in passengers carried of over 60 of the world’s major airlines amounted to just 4.9%.

Since the start of 2015, Aeroflot Group has not only maintained this growth rate — it has increased it. For the first two months of the year it exceeded 5.1 million passengers carried, 15.7% higher than the same period year on year.

Another key feature that distinguishes Aeroflot from other Russian airlines is that it achieves this growth in operational results without incurring any financial losses or increasing its debt burden. In 2014, Aeroflot Group’s IFRS revenue grew by 9.9% to 319.8 billion roubles. Operating profit amounted to 11.3 billion roubles. Due to paper adjustments, including the exchange rate fluctuations, the Group posted a loss of 17.1 billion roubles, but without those paper adjustments would have shown a profit of 10.8 billion roubles.

Airline Business’ data is testimony to the consistent implementation of the key elements in Aeroflot Group’s strategy. One goal set is for the Group to be among Europe’s top-5 carriers by passenger traffic and revenue by 2025. Aeroflot has already demonstrated its solid position among the top-5 European airlines in a variety of key indicators.