Airport vs skyscraper

More than a thousand employees of the Omsk airport announced a protest action

On January 30, the staff of the Omsk airport will hold a preventive protest action: from 11 am to 12 pm (local time), registration of passengers and luggage will be suspended. This was announced on January 16 by the airport administration. Reason for...

On January 30, the staff of the Omsk airport will hold a preventive protest action: from 11 am to 12 pm (local time), registration of passengers and luggage will be suspended. This was announced on January 16 by the airport administration.

The reason for the action is the transfer of the airport from federal ownership to the regional one. According to employees, this means the actual seizure of the territory by commercial structures close to the government of the Omsk region.

In October last year, the regional government announced the transfer of 85.3% of the shares and property of the Omsk airport to the region. Officials say this will speed up the construction of a new airport to replace the current one. But, according to the airport management, this is just a cover to take away the land that the port now occupies.

The area occupied by the airport in the city center is at least one and a half thousand hectares. According to the general director of Omsk Airport JSC Sergey Kruglov, the cadastral value of this land is 90 billion rubles, the market value, as a rule, is one and a half to two times more. Skyscrapers are already being erected on this territory, for example, an 80-meter high public and business complex, in the construction of which the British company London & Regional Properties invested 100 million US dollars. True, the construction of the skyscraper was suspended by the decision of the prosecutor's office due to the threat to flight safety (on this site, buildings should not be higher than 22.6 m). The regional authorities had a difficult choice: to demolish the unfinished building, not fulfilling their promises to investors, or to build a new airport.

This, according to the estimates of the regional government, requires 5.3 billion rubles, and according to the airport workers - 5-6 times more. The amount is equal to the annual budget of the region. It will not be easy for the regional authorities to find her. Therefore, the Omsk Airport team believes that transferring it to regional ownership will only lead to the fact that "more than a thousand highly qualified specialists will be left without work, and a million city without air transport."

This was announced on November 30 in an appeal to the President and Prime Minister, which was signed by 1,100 people.

So far, only Omsk law enforcement officers have responded to the appeal. On the eve of the New Year, a criminal case was initiated against the chairman of the trade union committee of the airport, Nina Ittorma - she made a mistake when drawing up financial documents in the amount of 8,700 rubles spent on the holiday. A written undertaking not to leave was taken from the accused. In December, General Director Kruglov fell under two articles of the Criminal Code for "abuse of official authority". For interrogations at the Internal Affairs Directorate, he says, everyone is called in - managers, heads of services, ordinary employees of the enterprise. People are being interrogated at workplaces as well.

The transport prosecutor's office declared the forthcoming action of the airport employees a strike and is trying to ban it through the court. In the future, the airport staff promises to hold an indefinite protest action, suspending the operation of the airport.