Gazpromneft-Aero, the aviation fuel operator subsidiary of Gazprom Neft, reports a 1.5% year-on-year increase in jet fuel sales in the first quarter of 2020 to 856,000 tonnes.
Refuelling volumes for long-haul freighter flights on the Trans-Siberian routes from Asia to Europe and Russia rose as well. The largest jet fuel sales increases were registered at the international airports of Krasnoyarsk [KJA] (+147%), Yekaterinburg [SVX] (+26%), Omsk [OMS] (+19%) and Novosibirsk [OVB] (+3%). The company has also seen a 25% increase in sales at the airports located in Chukotka autonomous district.
Higher sales volume in the air cargo segment mitigated the global decline in passenger flights.
The volume of retail sales abroad remained in line with last year, exceeding 86,000 tonnes of jet fuel. Chinese airports accounted for the largest growth in wing-tip sales. Refuelling services for passenger and cargo flights are facilitated by Gazpromneft-Aero’s strategic partnership with China National Aviation Fuel Group Corporation (CNAF), the country’s national jet fuel provider, covering more than 30 international airports in China.
In Q1 2020 the company provided refuelling services in China to nine airlines, including Aeroflot, S7, Ural Airlines, Royal Flight, Volga-Dnepr and others. The total refuelling volume of Russian air carriers in China grew by 20% in the reporting period to more than 12,500 tonnes of kerosene. The company has also sold 2,900 tonnes of jet fuel to CNAF clients in Russia in the first three months of 2020. Within the framework of the new contract, Gazpromneft-Aero started supplying fuel to Sichuan Airlines cargo flights at Koltsovo international airport in Yekaterinburg. The carrier’s daily return flight routes include Brussels to Yekaterinburg followed by the Chinese industrial hubs in Shuangliu and Xinyang.
Koltsovo [SVX] in Yekaterinburg is the fifth airport in Russia in addition to Sheremetyevo (Moscow), Vnukovo (Moscow), Pulkovo (St. Petersburg) and Kadala (Chita) where Gazpromneft-Aero offers refuelling services to CNAF partner airlines, including China Eastern, Air China and China Southern.
“During the first quarter the aviation market landscape changed dramatically in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Despite the introduction of flight suspensions at Russian airports from late January and the cancellation of international passenger flights in March, we quickly adapted to these new challenges to ensure there were no interruptions to our refuelling operations. Thanks to our extensive global network we were able to refuel dozens of unscheduled flights to bring Russian citizens home. We also increased the volume of wing-tip refuelling for cargo airlines and plan to develop this line of business in the future”, said Vladimir Yegorov, CEO of Gazpromneft-Aero.
