Aeroflot and the Moscow Region government signed a three-year cooperation agreement yesterday. Aeroflot secured tax breaks from the Moscow Region authorities for its Sheremetyevo-3 project, a new terminal that the company intends to build in exactly three years.

Aeroflot intends to begin construction of a new terminal next spring. For this purpose, the airline has leased 50 hectares of land in the Khimki District of the Moscow Region, not far from Sheremetyevo-2, for 49 years. Investment requirements for this project are estimated at $250-300 million (with a capacity of 9-11 million passengers per year), and the payback period is 8-10 years.

It is noteworthy that Aeroflot signed the agreement with the Moscow Region on the eve of today's government meeting, where the concept of developing the Moscow Aviation Hub (MAH) is being discussed. Experts have long agreed that Moscow has too many four airports - Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Bykovo. Various schemes for managing their property are periodically built around the first three: sometimes a rumor arises about a single management company for the MAU with its center in Domodedovo, sometimes the idea of transferring Vnukovo to the Presidential Property Management Department is being discussed. Companies closely associated with airports emphasize the advantages of their base. East Line is opening a reconstructed terminal in Domodedovo tomorrow and calls this airport the most promising in the MAU. Aeroflot, based in Sheremetyevo, is in dire need of a new terminal, because the two operating ones are already barely consistent with the image of an international airline.

As noted in the press release of the Khimki District Administration of the Moscow Region, Aeroflot will invest about $50 million in airport infrastructure, housing construction and other facilities, and will also provide the regional government with benefits for passenger and cargo air transportation. According to Aeroflot CEO Valery Okulov, the company's investments are mainly intended for the construction of the terminal. In response, the Moscow Region government has pledged to provide Aeroflot with benefits for regional and municipal taxes and fees. Moscow Region Governor Boris Gromov did not specify the volume of benefits in question.

Such obvious "Moscow Region separatism" is explained by the fact that there has long been a sluggish dispute between Moscow and the Moscow Region: who owns the land in the Sheremetyevo area. Now, on the site of Sheremetyevo-3, there is only a plot of land cleared of forest, so the lease issue is not so urgent. Another matter is the new terminal, from whose enterprises considerable taxes can be received. The land dispute is one of the factors that is slowing down the construction of Sheremetyevo-3 and is causing Aeroflot to quarrel with the management of Sheremetyevo International Airport. In this dispute, Aeroflot took the side of the Moscow Region, in exchange for receiving tax breaks. There remains "a mere trifle": attracting $200-250 million in investments for the construction of the new terminal. Yesterday, Valery Okulov could not name journalists with which of the foreign investors negotiations are underway, adding that they have not yet been completed.

Aeroflot has achieved benefits