Ukrainian airlines in January-September 2013 saw the carriage of passengers drop by 2.7% compared to the same period in 2012, to 6.25 million people, the State Aviation Service has said.

According to its data, in January-September commercial passenger and cargo transportation was performed by 40 Ukrainian airlines. Cargo and mail carriage in the first nine months of the year decreased by 10.7%, to 74,300 tonnes.

The service experts explain the reduction in air traffic with the cessation of AeroSvit's activity in the beginning of the year, which provided the largest volume of passenger traffic on international and domestic routes.

"However, it should be noted that a significant reduction in passenger traffic was observed only in the first quarter of this year (almost 20%). During the second and third quarters of this year, Ukrainian airlines, on the background of the aggravation of the struggle for passengers with foreign carriers, achieved the same level of traffic as in the corresponding quarters of 2012," reads a statement.

The gradual recovery of traffic on routes that were temporarily not served by the Ukrainian side, the active marketing policy of Ukrainian airlines, and the invigoration of charter flights, according to the service, prevented a more significant drop in passenger traffic over the first nine months of this year.

"At present, the leading domestic airlines in terms of passenger traffic are Ukraine International Airlines (a 63.2% rise), Wizz Air Ukraine (49.7% up), UTair-Ukraine (2.6 times up), Air Onix (3.6 times up) and Windrose (an 8.2% fall)," reads the report.