Aeroflot stock takes off after Russia grounds rivals over coronavirus

Aeroflot’s shares have surged 10% since authorities in Moscow suspended commercial flights to China by its Russian rivals to prevent coronavirus spreading. Aeroflot now holds an effective monopoly on Russia-China flights at home and is likely to receive additional volumes of passengers traveling through Moscow to Europe, analysts say. Several rivals have stopped flying to China. As of Friday, only Aeroflot and four Chinese airlines are allowed to fly commercial routes between Russia and China. Those flights are being routed through a separate terminal at Aeroflot’s home airport to screen passengers for infection. Last year, more than 2m Chinese holiday-makers travelled to Russia. “Aeroflot has basically become the only carrier for passengers to China, which means even with the fall in overall passenger traffic there could be an increase in its flight load,” Mikhail Ganelin, an aviation expert at Aton, said. Russia’s flights with China are regulated by a bilateral agreement and Aeroflot cannot increase the number of its flights to China or the size of the planes that fly those routes without Russia signing a new deal. “The maximum that can be extracted from this situation is to fill up the flights they have,” said Boris Rybak, head of the Infomost consultancy.<br/>