Cargo revenue at Aeroflot increased by 37.7 per cent in the first half of 2017 with volumes growing 44.3 per cent.
It was up from 5.2 billion roubles ($88.6 million) in 2016 to 7.1 billion roubles this year as the group added widebody aircraft to its fleet, helping cargo and mail volumes grow 44.3 per cent to 122,349 tonnes.
Total revenue grew 4.9 per cent to 234.8 billion roubles, and though operating profits were down 66.9 per cent to 7.7 billion roubles, net profits were up 17.1 per cent to 2.9 billion roubles.
Aeroflot deputy chief executive officer for commerce and finance, Shamil Kurmashov says: “Despite the reduction in operating profitability, Aeroflot Group’s net income for the reporting period was on a par with last year’s result, at RUB 2.9 billion. This was mainly due to a significant reduction in debt through repayment of loans and borrowings ahead of schedule, as well as savings on non-operating costs.”
Net debt was reduced by 59.8 per cent to 42.6 billion roubles, with net debt being reduced to 0.7 times EBITDA, compared to 1.4 at the end of 2016.
Kurmashov says: “We enter the third quarter – traditionally a high season for Russian civil aviation – with favourable conditions: the exchange rate and the fuel prices are at a ‘normalised’ level, and we continue our active demand-oriented revenue-management programme.”
“We are maintaining the pace of operational growth on both foreign and domestic markets, and this allows us to be optimistic about the second half of the year.”
