Cargo and passenger transportation surge in January-May

By Nazrin Abdul

During January-May of this year, cargo and passenger transportation increased by 3.4 percent and 8.1 percent, respectively, compared to the same period last year, Azernews reports citing the State Statistics Committee.

The State Statistics Committee reported that 94.0 million tons of cargo were transported by economic entities operating in the transport sector. Of this, 3.6 percent was transported by sea, 8.1 percent by rail, 0.2 percent by air, and 57.8 percent by road.

Cargo transported by vehicles in the non-state sector increased by 5.2 percent, accounting for 77.9 percent of the total volume of transported goods.

Additionally, during January-May of this year, 802.7 million passengers were served by transporters. Of these, 87.6 percent traveled by car, 11.8 percent by subway, and the remainder by other modes of transportation.

Notably, 7.7 million tons of cargo and 3.27 million passengers were transported by rail in January-May 2024. Compared to the same period last year, this represents a 0.9 percent increase in cargo transportation and a 20.9 percent increase in passenger transportation. On average, 371 wagons were loaded and 422 wagons were unloaded per day. Daily, 17.2 thousand tons were loaded on the railway, including 3.8 thousand tons in the Western direction and 0.8 thousand tons in the Southern direction.

The volume of cargo transported by sea in January-May was 3.34 million tons, a decrease of 6.7 percent compared to the corresponding period last year. Half of the sea cargoes were oil. Sea ports handled 5.58 million tons of cargo, of which 4.47 million tons (80.1 percent) were transit cargoes. As of June 1, 2024, 280.1 thousand tons of cargo remained in the ports. During this period, the number of passengers transported by sea increased by 26.7 percent compared to the same period in 2023, reaching 10.9 thousand people.

Road transport moved 54.4 million tons of cargo and 702.9 million passengers, marking increases of 7.7 percent and 8.6 percent, respectively, compared to the previous year. Of the passengers, 95.3 percent used buses, and 4.7 percent used passenger taxis. Cargo turnover rose by 10.5 percent, and passenger turnover by 9.7 percent. The number of metro passengers increased by 3.6 percent to 95.1 million people.

Air transport saw 1.39 million more passengers, a 44.2 percent increase, with a total of 10.9 thousand passengers. Nearly all air transportation (99.9 percent) was carried out by state vehicles, with private enterprises accounting for just 0.1 percent. Cargo transportation by air rose by 15.5 percent to 162,000 tons.