MOSCOW, December 8. /TASS/. Russian airlines carried 97.5 mln passengers in January-November period of 2017, which is a record result for the sector, according to the data released by Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency on Friday.

"Russian airlines are expected to carry up to 105 mln passengers by the end of the year," the agency said.

"In January-November period of this year, Russian air carriers provided services to 97.5 mln passengers, a 19.1% increase compared with the same period last year," the report said.

Previously, the highest level of 93.1 mln people was reported in 2014.

Passenger turnover amounted to 238.9 bln passenger-kilometers for 11 months of 2017, a 20.2% increase year-on-year. The seat load factor increased 1.8 percentage points in the reporting period to 83.3%. Revenue load amounted to 69% (+1.2%).

Passenger flow of Russian airlines in November grew by 17% to 7.7 mln people.

Aeroflot traditionally took the lead in Russia’s passenger transportation in November as it carried more than 2.5 mln passengers (+12%) on domestic and international routes, followed by Rossiya with 639,400 passengers (+3%), S7 - 761,300 passengers (+22%), Ural Airlines - 573,500 passengers (+23.7%), and UTair - 583,400 passengers (+8.1%), the Federal Air Transport Agency said.