Companies@UA: База компаний Украины

Moscow, July 29 (Interfax) - Russian airlines carried 18.8 million passengers in the first half of 2009, down 18% from the same period of 2008, the Federal Air Transportation Agency said in a statement on its website.

Airlines carried 4.6 million passengers in June, down 13.4% from June 2008.

The number of passengers traveling to international destinations declined 17.2% to 8.8 million in the half, while 9.96 million passengers traveled on domestic flights, down 18.7%. The seat occupancy ratio shrank 1 percentage point to 70.5%.

Passenger turnover fell 17.6% to 46.3 billion passenger-kilometers in the half.

Russian airlines flew 2.3 million passengers on international flights in June and 2.29 million on domestic flights, both down about 13% from June 2008.