MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/. Russia’s flagship carrier Aeroflot ranks the 20th in the world in terms of passenger traffic, the airline’s CEO Vitaly Savelyev said during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

"Let me inform you that Aeroflot airline is back to the global civil aviation, now 30 years after, and if in 2009, when I began to work, Aeroflot ranked 68th in the world in terms of passenger traffic, now we are 20th in the world. That means that we have entered the top 20 of the world's leading airlines. This is very important for us, it is very important for the country," he said.

Savelyev also marked the fact that the airlines, which openly used dumping, left the market.

"In general, the situation is normal, and we see it," he said.

According to him, next year Aeroflot will transport 33 million passengers.

"But most importantly, we are not "breaking" the market, our participation there is only 41%, so Aeroflot is not currently a monopoly or the dominant company. We have Russian competitors in every direction," he stressed.

Savelyev noted that the airline is trying to maintain its competitive advantage, which in particular implies the renewal of the fleet.

"Our fleet is the youngest in the world (today the average age is 4.1 years) among airlines with more than 100 planes," he said.

Savelyev added that Aeroflot is only two tenths of a percentage point behind the Emirates airline in terms of passenger loyalty index. The rest of the European big airlines are two or three times lower, he said.