Aeroflot has reduced its losses by 62.1 per cent in 2015 to 6.5 billion roubles ($86 million) with cargo revenue increasing despite volumes falling.

The losses for the year were down from 17.1 billion roubles and revenue increased by 29.8 per cent to 415.1 billion roubles. Cargo revenue increased by 10.5 per cent to 9.6 billion roubles despite cargo and mail volumes falling by six per cent to 156,335 tonnes.

Aeroflot deputy chief executive officer for finance and network and revenue management, Shamil Kurmashov says: “The challenging macroeconomic situation had a significant impact on Group financial results throughout the year. In response to the worsening external backdrop we took a number of steps to optimise the fleet and cut costs, enabling us to limit the growth of operating costs despite significant exchange rate pressure over the course of 2015.”

In January, cargo and mail volumes increased by 12 per cent to 10,811 tonnes. On domestic services it was up 12.9 per cent to 5,466 tonnes and international volumes increased by 11.1 per cent to 5,364 tonnes.

From 3 June Aeroflot will start three times a week Airbus A320 services between Moscow and Lyon (France). It will leave Moscow at 10.25h and arrive in Lyon at 13.15h, and the return flight will leave Lyon at 14.25h and land back in Moscow at 19.05h.