Airport starts second terminal (723 words)

Published: 3/5/2001

Domodedovo International Airport (DIA), part of the East Line Group, has reported its operating results for 2000 and plans for 2001. Sergey Rudakov, the General Director of DIA said that during 2000 the airport serviced 2.76m passengers, including 1.42m arrivals and 1.33m departures. Overall the airport's traffic declined, reflecting the soft domestic market that accounts for 78% of the airport's passengers. According to Rudakov, Domodedovo was not alone in suffering a decline. Moscow airport experienced a 9% fall in domestic, accompanied by a rise of 12% in passengers for CIS and foreign routes in 2000. The airport's international business, in line with other airports, continued to grow, aided by the opening of the new international terminal in May 2000. International routes (not including CIS) currently only account for 3.6% of the airport's passengers, with the remaining non-domestic traffic share of 18.5% attributed to CIS passengers. 98% of domestic passengers travel on domestic scheduled routes as do 95% of CIS passengers. International routes are 95% charter. The softness of the domestic market in 2000 however, appears to be hardening, with traffic in January 2001 growing by 2.9% over that in January 1999, making it 185,124 passengers passing through the airport. Currently 61 scheduled airlines use the airport, with a further 40 charter airlines operating to 240 destinations. In the last twelve months the company has attracted a number of new airlines including Perm Airlines, Bratsk Airlines, Aviaexpresscruise, Karat, MAVIAL (Magadan Airlines), Sakhalin Airlines and Donetsk Airlines. Increasing Domodedovo's share of the Moscow market from 18% in 1999 to 22% in terms of serviced landings - takeoffs and from 15% to 18% in terms of serviced passengers, according to Rudakov. Timekeeping also showed an improvement from 81.5% to 85.7% of flights on time. The airport also commented that due to its effective snow clearing, it handled 18 flights that could not land at Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo during recent heavy snowfalls. Developments In April 2001, the airport starts the rconstruction of its second terminal Domodedovo-2 (D2). The first stage takes place between April 2001-April 2002 and involves the construction of 16,000 square metres and nine docking piers, at a cost of $35-$42m. The development will be funded from the company's own resources (East Line Group), according to Rudakov, with total investment by the end of the project's three stages, amounting to $220-$250m by its planned completion in 2003-2004. He did indicate that the airport might consider external investors if it felt that the growth of traffic was outstripping its ability to fund development. To that end it had already staged some talks on potential outside investment. Rudakov said that the objective of the airport's redevelopment, apart from increasing the quality of service and volume of traffic, would be to allow the airport to generate a much higher proportion of its revenue from non-aviation fee sources, closer to the 70% of revenues derived by foreign airports. The company has therefore endeavoured to retain control of hotels and catering services at the airport, while renting out some space to restaurants and bars. During 2001, part of the plan to improve the airport's services includes starting its $7.5m railway station adjacent to the domestic departures hall. Passengers will be able to check in at the station, coming directly from Paveletsk Railway Station in central Moscow in 32 minutes. Rudakov said that Moszheldorproject (research institute for railroads) estimates that the project will pay back over 4.1 years. 2001 will see the DIA planning to also improve its transit services for passengers flying through Moscow to destinations elsewhere in Russia, by removing the present need to recover baggage for follow-on flights. To facilitate this, DIA is assisting with the installation of compatible systems at airports in Chelyabinsk, Samara and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski. Rudakov still believes that airport traffic needs to grow in volume. The only way to attract carriers is by the steady improvement in the quality of service offered at a competitive rate. Discussions are currently taking place with a number of airlines, including Swissair and Lufthansa, says Rudakov. A decision is not expected in the short-term. Centre-Avia recently transferred 3 of its routes (to Volgograd, Anapa, and Ufa) to DIA, from Bykovo Airport. Transaero is discussing a transfer, given its publicly stated unhappiness with Sheremetyevo's service.

Article ID: 2392