Flight Friday: Eastern European Carriers Amidst Recovery And War

This week’s  Flight Friday focuses on Eastern European (excluding Russian) operators, corresponding with the upcoming Aviation Week MRO BEER event June 26-27 in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Not only were Eastern European operators hit by the COVID outbreak in 2020, but then they were further impacted with the Russian invasion of Ukraine back in February 2022.

Looking at utilization when compared to the equivalent month in 2019, utilization dropped to 10% of 2019 levels during the onset of the global pandemic. 2021 saw some utilization recovery, and by the end of 2021, utilization was a touch under 90% of the 2019 equivalent.

However, in early 2022 Russia made its move across the border into Ukraine, which delt a blow to traffic in and around the region. Growth plateaued during the summer months in 2022, followed by some modest growth during the whole of 2023, to take utilization into the mid 90’s.

2024 has begun with a more positive start, with both hours and cycles returning to 100% equivalent 2019 levels. As flight hours are growing, marginally, quicker than flight cycles, this suggests that the average stage length of the flights is also increasing.

Russian operators, on the other hand, are operating at a third less utilization than 2019 levels, as they are predominantly restricted to domestic flying, or to neighboring “friendly” countries, with a fleet that is slowly running out of official spare parts due to sanctions.

This data was put together using Aviation Week’s Tracked Aircraft Utilization tool.