Russia's flagship carrier Aeroflot on Tuesday said it had reduced its loses in 2015, as the country's airlines continue to grapple with the fallout of Russia's economic crisis. The majority state-controlled company registered a net loss of 6.5 billion rubles ($88 million, 80 million euros) down from some 17 billion rubles in 2014 and ahead of analyst predictions.
"The complex macroeconomic situation had a significant influence on the financial results of the group during the whole year," a company statement said.
"In response to the worsening of external factors, we carried out a range of measures to optimise our fleet and cut costs," it said.
Most of the losses were down to a spike in operating costs due to the weak ruble against the dollar, with leasing costs rising by over 86 percent. Russia's aviation industry has struggled in the face of the country's economic crisis with overall passengers numbers dropping by some six percent last year as the fall in the ruble and recession eat into people's spending power. The economic trouble saw Russia's second-biggest carrier Transaero stop flying last October due to financial problems.
Aeroflot, however, said that its total passenger volume had increased by 13.4 percent from 2014 to 39.4 million passengers, although the number of international travellers had dropped by some 6.2 percent. The uptick appeared down to the development of Aeroflot's low-cost carrier Pobeda and the disappearance of its main rival Transaero from the market.
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