Russian airlines, hampered by sanctions, saw 15.7% y/y traffic slump in Nov

Russian airlines' passenger traffic was down 15.7% in November year-on-year to 6.94 million passengers, data from the Rosstat federal statistics service showed on Wednesday, as the industry feels the effects of Western sanctions.

Western countries banned Russian airlines from using their airspace in response to Moscow sending its armed forces into Ukraine in February, cutting the airlines off from lucrative routes to Europe and the United States. Traffic for the first 11 months of the year was down 14.4% to 88 million passengers, Rosstat said.