Jamil Manizada: Transit segment accounted for 90% of growth in AZAL's passenger traffic in 2026

The passenger traffic of Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) CJSC for the period from January to October 2026 reached 3,661,630 passengers, demonstrating a 6% increase compared to the same period last year, AZAL Commercial Director Jamil Manizada wrote on a social network, Report informs.

According to the airline's statistics, in absolute terms, the number of passengers carried over the reporting 10 months increased by 193,219 people. The number of flights performed also showed an 8% growth, amounting to 31,481, which is 2,204 flights more compared to the same period in 2025.

According to Manizada, the main factor in the passenger traffic increase was the transit segment, which accounted for about 90% of the total growth.

The number of transfer passengers increased by 23% (or by 172,925 people), reaching 924,078. The share of transit in the total transport structure rose from 22% to 25%: today, every fourth AZAL client makes a transit flight.

"On average, during the first ten months, over 3,000 passengers used transit flights via Baku daily, which is approximately 570 people more than last year's level," the AZAL commercial director emphasized.

The greatest dynamics were demonstrated by key regional routes passing through the capital's airport. In particular, 12,851 transit passengers were carried on the Delhi-Tbilisi route (an 18.6-fold increase year-on-year), Chisinau-Delhi - 6,408 (a 9.6-fold increase), Almaty-Jeddah - 7,792 (+341%), and on the Delhi-Tel Aviv route - 9,773 (+176%).

A stable positive trend continued in October on five priority routes: Delhi-Tbilisi - 1,404 transit passengers (+527%), Astana-Tbilisi - 1,270 (+290%), Delhi-Tel Aviv - 1,757 (+104%), Chisinau-Delhi - 1,015 (+915%), as well as the new Jeddah-Shymkent route - 1,122. The total passenger traffic on these routes in October amounted to 6,568 people, which is more than four times higher than the result of the same month last year (1,510 people).

In addition, in January-October, the airline increased the average daily flight time of the entire fleet's aircraft from 8.9 to 9.8 block hours. For Airbus family aircraft (excluding aircraft leased with a crew), this figure increased from 9.3 to 11 hours.