The passenger traffic of Russian airports rose by 7% in 2019 to 221 million people, head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Alexei Neradko said on Tuesday.

“We have all the reasons for optimism – this year air transport will carry over 221 million passengers,” he said in a New Year congratulatory note. “This indicator is record both for Russian and Soviet civil aviation.”

He said that there was a significant shift to domestic traffic thanks in part to subsidies for domestic routes.

In 2018, Russian airports carried 206.5 million people.