While most Russian carriers are showing a decrease in traffic, a couple seem to be bucking the trend. Overall Russian passenger traffic plunged 15.3% in the first eight months of this year, compared with the same period in 2008, according to federal air transport agency data. The industry carried 29.6 million passengers through August, down from 34.9 million in the first eight months of 2008.rnRussia's top five airlines, which together account for 54% of Russian traffic, all saw their numbers dip well below last year's levels during the firstrnhalf of the year. Flag carrier Aeroflot posted a 9.7% drop in traffic, to 5.7 million passengers. S7 Airlines' traffic sank 30.9% to 2.9 million passengers, partly because of a late 2008 decision to spin off its charter operations into a subsidiary airline, Globus. GTK Rossiya carried 2 million passengers, a decrease of 18.3%.
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