SHEREMETYEVO RANKED EUROPE"S MOST PUNCTUAL AIRPORT DESPITE SOARING TRAFFIC FIGURES

Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport enjoyed a good 2017, handling a record 40 million passengers and being ranked the most punctual gateway in Europe by OAG for airports offering between 20 and 30 million departing seats per annum.

Its punctuality ranking meant that Sheremetyevo was the third most on-time airport in the world in 2017 – behind only Minneapolis/St Paul and Doha's Hamed International Airport – according to OAG's 'Punctuality League' report. 

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Indeed, according to OAG's findings, 83.55% of the airport's flights landed or took off within 15 minutes of their scheduled departure or arrival times in 2017.

And the airport claims that this actually translated to 97% of flights operating on time last year.

The upturn in traffic meant that Sheremetyevo welcomed 17.8% more passengers last year than in 2016.

International traffic in 2017 grew by 17.3% to 22.1 million passengers and domestic throughput by 18.5% to 17.9 million. 

Transfer traffic continued to rise, soaring by 14% to 14.8 million, to account for 37% of all passengers handled at Sheremetyevo.

The airport also handled 13% more flights as aircraft movements reached 308,090 in 2017.

The figures, it says, ensure that Sheremetyevo "strengthened its leading position among Moscow airports with share of 45% of passenger traffic".

Homebase carrier Aeroflot's expanding route network, a 16% jump in passenger numbers travelling between Moscow and China, and a host of new airline services are considered the key growth drivers of the last 12 months.

Airliines launching new serviuces to Moscow Sheremetyevo in 2017 included Iran's Taban Air and Qeshm Air; Beijing Capital Airlines and Royal Flight from China; flydubai from UAE; Cobalt Air from Cyprus; and Turkish Atlasglobal and Rusline from Russia.