Passenger transportation by Russian air carriers declined by 11% year-on-year in January 2023, head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Alexander Neradko told reporters on Tuesday.

Airlines carried eight million passengers last January.

"We have the decline in total carriage by about 11% against last January. However, this is not related to capabilities of airlines at all. Last January was January before sanctions and international transportation was very intensive. We believe this is a pretty good result," the official said.

Russian air carriers transported about 95 million passengers as of 2022 year-end.