In 2019, Pulkovo St. Petersburg Airport served a total of 19,581,262 passengers, 8.1% more than in 2018.

Domestic flights carried 12,110,964 passengers in 2019, which exceeds the 2018 figure by 9.8%. In terms of international traffic, the number of passengers rose by 5.3% compared to 2018 to 7,470,298 people. In 2019, Pulkovo Airport handled 168,572 take-off and landing operations, which constitutes an increase of 1.9% year-on-year.

The peak day for passenger traffic was August 2, 2019. On this day, Pulkovo Airport served over 77 thousand passengers, the largest number handled in one day in the airport's history. August 2019 became the busiest month of the year; Pulkovo served 2,221,090 passengers in 31 working days.

During 2019, three new foreign airlines commenced scheduled flights from St. Petersburg Airport: Lucky Air, SunExpress, and Wizz Air UK. The route network of Pulkovo Airport was expanded by 14 new destinations. These were the domestic destinations of Elista, Gelendzhik, Irkutsk, Khanty-Mansiysk, Nizhnevartovsk, Novokuznetsk, and the international destinations of Eilat (Israel), Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Kunming (China), Izmir (Turkey), Karshi (Uzbekistan), Olbia (Italy), Palma de Mallorca (Spain).

TOP Destinations from Pulkovo Airport in Terms of Passenger Traffic, 2019

In 2019, Rossiya Airlines, Pobeda, Aeroflot, S7 Airlines, and Ural Airlines were the largest Russian carriers at Pulkovo in terms of passenger numbers. In total, they provided services to 11,889,954 passengers at St. Petersburg Airport, or 60.7% of passengers in 2019. Among foreign airlines, Lufthansa, Belavia, Uzbekistan Airways, Finnair, and Turkish Airlines, became the leaders at St. Petersburg Airport for 2019. In total, they carried 1,405,456 passengers at Pulkovo, or 7.2% of total passengers.

Infrastructure Development

In 2019, Pulkovo Airport welcomed, for the first time in its history, the most technologically advanced passenger aircraft Airbus A350-900, demonstrating the readiness of the airfield infrastructure and airport services to handle the aircraft of such type.

Over the past year, Pulkovo Airport implemented a number of projects to expand the parking complex. Pulkovo operator launched a new long-term parking, a minute's walk from the terminal. The other project included the expansion of the road from three to six lanes at the exit from the arrivals area.

New Passenger Services

In 2019, Pulkovo Airport operator implemented the new conception for the commercial area of the domestic departures hall. The project included the relocation of the existing facilities and launch of new establishments. In September 2019, the RegStaer Group of Companies, the leading Russian travel retailer in the airports, opened a walk-through Duty Paid as an anchor store of the renovated commercial area.

Pulkovo Airport introduced gastromarket format for food and beverage services. The Vino & Vkusnosti organic foods and products market was launched in the general area of the arrivals hall. CRAFT, a local farm products store, a wine shop and a cafe, was opened in the domestic departures hall.

Another novelty was the launch of Duty Free in the international arrivals hall.

New Opportunities for Passenger Traffic Growth

On October 1, 2019, Pulkovo Airport started to serve citizens of 53 countries entering the Russian Federation on the basis of electronic visas.

In December 2019, Pulkovo Airport received the approval from the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation to introduce the 7th freedom traffic rights for foreign airlines to perform flights to St. Petersburg from 30 European countries starting January 1, 2020. The 7th-freedom traffic rights allow the airline to perform flights between two foreign countries while not offering service to the carrier's own country.

Pulkovo Airport Operational Results for December 2019

In December 2019, 1,345,769 passengers traveled through Pulkovo St. Petersburg Airport, 5.7% more than during the same month in 2018.

Domestic traffic was 6.7% higher during December 2019, at 941,638 passengers, compared to the same month of 2018. International traffic grew by 3.5% year-on-year and amounted to 404,131 passengers.

In December 2019, Pulkovo Airport handled 12,662 take-off and landing operations.

TOP Destinations from Pulkovo Airport in terms of Passenger Traffic Figures, December 2018

In December 2019, Rossiya Airlines, Pobeda, Aeroflot, S7 Airlines, and Smartavia were the largest Russian carriers in terms of passenger numbers at Pulkovo. In total, they provided services to 873,292 passengers, which constitutes 64.9% of the total passenger traffic of St. Petersburg Airport for that period. Among foreign airlines, the leaders were Belavia, Lufthansa, Uzbekistan Airways, Finnair, and Emirates. In total, they handled 104,907 passengers at Pulkovo, or 7.8% of the passenger traffic for December 2019.

St. Petersburg Pulkovo Airport is the fourth busiest airport in Russia in terms of passenger numbers. Since 2010, Northern Capital Gateway LLC has been the main operator of Pulkovo, implementing reconstruction and development projects under a public-private partnership agreement with the city of St. Petersburg.

Contributed by Pulkovo Airport