The Russian airline sector is bracing for a shakeout despite continued high traffic volume. But there are clear signs of a slowdown, and strong passenger-growth figures may mask financial weakness. For-now, the upswing remains impressive, with operators seeing a 21.8% volume increase in the first six months to 22.9 million passengers (last year saw an 18% hike over 2006 levels). But industrywide traffic growth in June has already cooled, and the July trend was expected to be the same-although carriers have not yet reported those figures.
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