The company will build an airport terminal capable of handling up to 3 million passengers per year

The financial company Axioma, controlled by State Duma deputy Sergei Zhuravlev, plans to build a new air terminal with an area of 25 thousand square meters in Voronezh within five years. m and a capacity of 1 million people - after the first stage. At the same time, as the company told Kommersant, the modular airport project will be designed for three stages and a total passenger flow of up to 3 million people. The cost of each line is estimated by experts at 1.5 billion rubles. However, analysts doubt the need to build an air terminal designed for passenger traffic of more than 1 million people in the medium term.

Voronezh air terminal still lacks modern infrastructure
Photo: Stanislav Dityatev

FC Axioma's plans to construct a new airport terminal building were announced yesterday during a working visit to Voronezh by Russian Presidential Aide Igor Levitin. He held a meeting with the participation of regional leaders, at which, in particular, the further development of Voronezh International Airport was discussed. According to the press service of the regional government, during the event it was said that “the owner of the airport plans to build a new terminal building with an area of 25 thousand square meters in the next five years. m, the project is planned to be developed before July 2015.” As Ivan Kandybin, general director of Axiom, explained to Kommersant yesterday, the project involves the construction of a modular airport consisting of three phases. The construction of each will take 2.5-3 years, which will result in the organization of an air terminal with a capacity of 1 million people. According to Mr. Kandybin, we are talking about a completely new facility that is in no way connected with the reconstructed air terminal. Moreover, after the commissioning of the first stage of the new building, it is planned to retrain the old one into a large regional bus station “taking into account its favorable location” in close proximity to the M4 Don highway. Thus, Axiom, together with regional authorities, can organize a transport hub connecting air and ground transportation.

FC Axioma became the main owner of the Voronezh airport last year, purchasing more than 45% of the shares from Polet airline. At the end of 2013, at a meeting between Governor Alexei Gordeev and Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov, a decision was announced to allocate 1.8 billion rubles for the reconstruction of the airport. until 2020 under the federal target program “Development of the Russian transport system for 2010-2020”. The first stage of reconstruction of the runway (runway) at the expense of the state budget (according to the Federal Air Transport Agency, more than 500 million rubles were invested) was completed back in 2010. The Russian budget for 2014 includes 500 million rubles. to continue the reconstruction of the apron and taxiways. It was assumed that the second stage, worth more than 1 billion rubles, including the lengthening of the runway, should be carried out in 2013-2015, however, a mandatory condition for the allocation of federal funds was the reconstruction of the airport complex, which, according to the target program, should be carried out at the expense of the region or “other extra-budgetary sources."

Let us note that, according to the regional government, the second floor of the old air terminal is currently being renovated, on which there will be a security check area and two departure lounges for passengers of international and domestic airlines. Completion of work, scheduled for August, should increase passenger traffic to 500 thousand passengers in 2015 and to 650 thousand by 2017.

Acting Governor Alexey Gordeev believes that the development of the airport is about five years behind the development of the infrastructure of the city and the region as a whole, which is why passengers are experiencing difficulties. According to the head of the region, the change of owners of the airport made it possible to develop it at an “accelerated pace”: “By September 1, we will have a normal airport building and part of the taxiing stations, which will provide more powerful passenger air transport. We have a good opportunity to complete the development of the entire airport infrastructure over the next two years and to complete the development of the entire airport terminal area in the next two years.”

The head of the analytical department of the Aviaport agency, Oleg Panteleev, believes that in the medium term the Voronezh airport can reach a passenger flow of 1 million passengers per year: “In parallel, issues of reconstructing the runway and airfield facilities, as well as attracting new airlines, are being resolved. If previously the bulk of flights were operated by Polet, today the investor declares that he welcomes new carriers.” Mr. Panteleev also noted as positive factors the prospect of luring passengers from adjacent regions, not all of which have an airport with a developed route network. The second stage, according to the expert, is advisable to introduce when passenger traffic reaches 800 thousand people based on a capacity reserve of 20%: “When the load is 100% of the nominal capacity, any failure leads to a deterioration in the quality of passenger service.” Oleg Panteleev found it difficult to estimate the cost of the project, but noted that investments in an air terminal of comparable size in Nizhny Novgorod with an area of 20 thousand square meters. m at the end of 2012 were planned in the amount of 2.7 billion rubles. The volume of investments per 1 million passengers was then approximately estimated at 1.5 billion rubles.

The editor-in-chief of the Avia.ru portal, Roman Gusarov, called the “modular solution” the right one when planning a new airport terminal, since it will allow queues to be built as needed, increasing passenger traffic. However, Mr. Gusarov believes that a terminal for 1 million people will be quite enough for Voronezh in the near future: “We can build one for 3 million, but where can we get the required number of passengers? About 2 million people live in the entire Voronezh region.” The expert doubts that Voronezh will be able to become a major transit hub and advises paying more attention to attracting new carriers. “However, no carrier will be able to fly half-empty for a long time, and I don’t yet see rapid growth in passenger traffic in the city or the prerequisites for this. Air transport in Russia today is generally used by about 10% of the population,” added Mr. Gusarov. At the same time, taking into account the favorable location of the local airport, he suggested that the construction of a cargo terminal could be attractive for the owner.

Andrey Tsvetkov, Maria Starikova

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