The domestic passenger traffic at Rostov-on-Don International Airport (belongs to Airports of Regions Holding Company) in 2015 rose by 3.3% compared to the same last year period (1,497,538 pax). The total passenger flow at the capital of the Don for the third year in a row topped the two-million figure and amounted to 2,062,761 passengers (-11.8% year-on-year). The international flights serviced 565,223 passengers showing a 36.4% year over year decrease. The total number of sorties on domestic and international routes reduced by 10% to 11,379 operations.
In 2015, 21 Russian and 10 foreign airlines performed scheduled flights from Rostov-on-Don Airport to 50 destinations. All in all, three airlines – Donavia, base carrier of Rostov-on-Don Airport, Aeroflot-Russian Airlines and S7 Airlines accounted for 50% of passengers. In the past year, new airlines – Pobeda, Red Wings, Turuhan, as well as the national carrier of Georgia - Georgian Airways began to operate regular flights from Rostov Airport on domestic and international routes.
The largest passenger traffic is noted on route to Moscow. The volume of passengers on flights to the airports of the Moscow aviation hub in 2015 remained at the 2014 level and numbered 1,175,360 passengers (57% of total passenger traffic). The passenger flow to the "northern capital" - St. Petersburg went up by 11.9% (up to 176,103 pax) compared to the year-ago period.The domestic route network from Rostov-on-Don in the past year also included flights to the cities of the Volga, Ural, Siberian, North Caucasian Federal Districts and the Republic of Crimea. A high rate of growth (+ 33.9%, up to 94,023 pax) was registered on flights to Simferopol. A new flight of Pobeda airline to Sochi was also in demand and during the summer period serviced 12,616 passengers. A number of inter-regional routes faced an increment of passenger traffic. Thus, the passenger flow to Samara increased by 34.7% and to Novosibirsk by 15.7%.
The international air traffic in 2015 comprised 26 scheduled routes to the counties near and far abroad, as well as dozens of charter programs. Turkish and Egyptian resorts were the most popular among Rostovites in 2015 - more than 40% of international passengers accrued to these destinations. Tourists also enjoyed the Czech Republic (Prague), Greece (Thessaloniki) and the UAE (Dubai).