In January to October 2009, cargo transportation by vehicles made up 154.6 million tons of cargo, or 3% more than the same period of 2008. The cargo turnover increased by 9.3 percent.
The private sector share in cargo transportation was 72.9% due to efficient operation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.
Passenger transportation totaled 1091.5 million people or 7.0 percent more than January to October 2008. The share of private sector in the passenger transportation made up 83.5%. The passenger transportation by cars made up 83.5%, metro - 15.9 percent.
In January to October 2009, automobile transport took the lion share in the transport field of the country. The cargo transportation by vehicles made up 74.4mln tons of cargo, or 7.1% more than the same period of 2008. Passenger transportation comprised 911.8mln people with 96.5% people using buses and 3.5% people vehicles. Cargo turnover by vehicles increased by 5.6% compared with January-October of last year, and passenger - 8.2%.
One of the reasons for the growth of road transport is improvement after the reconstruction of the road.
In January to October 2009, the Azerbaijan State Railway Department (ASRD) transported 17.2mln tons of cargo, a decrease of 24.8% compared to the same period of 2008. The number of loaded carriages dropped by 623 in average. Average daily load of carriages in the northern direction is 29,100 tons and in western direction - 3,900, but in the southern direction - 2,800.
The cargo shipping via sea rose by 14.6% to 11.1 million tons. Transportation of the Kazakh oil also affected the increase. Presently, deliveries are carried out by three Azerbaijani and two Kazakh tankers.
¾ part of cargo deliveries fell on oil and oil products, while ¼ on dry cargo. All cargo deliveries were implemented under the international operations. The volume of cargo processed in Azerbaijani ports was 4.3 million tons in January to October 2009, or 4.4 percent less as compared to last year figure. As of November 1, 2009 14,500 tons of cargo left in the ports for import, which is 2.1 times less compared to the same period of last year.
In January-October 2009, the export via oil pipelines made up 42.4 million tons. During this period, ¾ or 32.1 million tons of oil was transported via the BTC. At the same time in January to October 2009 Kazakh oil transportation via the BTC, which began in October 2008, continued its increase. The transportation made up 1.5 million tons.
Transportation via gas pipelines made up 9.5bln cu.m, or 4.9% more than in January -October 2008. The major reason for the growth is the export of the Azerbaijani gas to the foreign markets. One third of the transported gas fell on South Caucasus Pipeline. About 4.3 billion cubic meters of gas was transported via this pipeline in January to October.
In January to October 2009, the passenger transportation via airways fell by 29.5% to 844,900 people, including 10.2% implemented by private sector. Greater part (89.8%) fell on public sector. Private sector transportation increased 2.3%, but public sector transportation fell 30.0%.
Metro remains the most popular and profitable modes of transport. The Baku Metro conveys 550,000-560,000 passengers per day on average. It conveys around 700,000 passengers on working days.
In January to October 2009, 173.5mln passengers used metro services or 6.9% rise. However, the number of passengers using metro decreased by 10 percent as compared to the previous month. This was caused by the decision of the Tariff Council to increase fare at the Baku Metro by 3 times - from 0.05 manat to 0.15 manat from October 1, 2009.
Considering the annual transportation of about 200 million passengers, it is expected that due to the increase fares at the Baku Metro, additional $20 million manat will be received anually. However, this does not cover the full operating costs of the Baku Metro, and the state will continue to subsidize its operating costs and capital investments.
In January to October 2009, 32.1mln tons of cargo (a decrease of 9.8%) and 152.2mln passengers (a rise of 7.0%) were transported via the Eurasian corridor.