The transport sector continued to post positive growth in December in both passenger and freight transport due to rising demand in the final month of the year.

Socio-economic figures released by the General Statistics Office on December 29 show that the number of passengers transported increased 2.1-fold year-on-year and the volume of freight transported by 19.1 per cent.

Passenger traffic in December was estimated at 297.1 million people, up 3.6 per cent against November. The yearly figure reached nearly 3.66 billion, an increase of 52.8 per cent year-on-year.

Of this, domestic passenger transport providers carried 3.65 billion people while foreign transport providers carried 5.2 million, up 52.6 per cent and 32.6 per cent, respectively, year-on-year.

Meanwhile, freight transport was estimated at 2 billion tons for the year, up 23.7 per cent against 2021. Domestic freight transport providers carried an estimated 1.9 billion tons.

“Despite the sector recovering, passenger transport in 2022 reached only 72.5 per cent of the figure in 2019, before Covid-19,” a report from the General Statistics Office noted.

“However, stability in domestic business and production, along with the recovery of export and import activities, increased demand for freight transport both at home and abroad compared to previous years.”