Translated material
Zhukovsky on vacation
Dmitry Medvedev opened the airport, which was immediately closed. Reporting Ilya Zheguleva
On Monday, May 30, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev opened the fourth Moscow airport-Zhukovsky, located near the Ramensky near Moscow. In addition to it, Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo enters the metropolitan knot. The construction of Zhukovsky began shortly before the economic crisis - percent of the growth of passenger traffic; Now, experts predict that it will decline for another five to seven years. In addition, Zhukovsky plan to limit 20 flights per day, since his air area intersects with Domodedovo. The day after the visit of Medvedev, Ilya Zhegulev, the Medvezi Special Corps came to Zhukovsky, who found out that in reality the airport was still closed. However, Zhukovsky’s employees allowed Medusa to see how his terminal looks.
To get to the new Moscow airport Zhukovsky, where he does not go high -speed Aeroexpress, is not an easy task. You can go by car along the Novoryazansky highway, but there is a risk of getting into serious traffic jams. From the Kazan station every 15–20 minutes, electric trains depart towards Ramensky. The usual train gets to the closest platform airport for about an hour.
On the platform, a man with a huge suitcase comes out with me. When asked if he, by chance, is going to the airport, a fellow traveler makes big eyes and waves his hand.
In the underground crossing on vacation, Boyko is trading with hands: sunglasses, salted cucumbers, vegetables, fruits, objects for the garden. I ask the seller in one of the tents where the airport is located and how to get to it; She begins to laugh: “This is far! This is a secret airport - you definitely won’t get to it on foot! ” Taxi drivers offer to get for 250 rubles, but I find out in time that minibuses in that direction also go. 20 minutes on the road - and I am already at the two -lane road leading to the airport. I go according to the pointer with the inscription "Zhukovsky Airport", I rest against the closed gates and the fence with barbed wire for reliability.
I see one more to the left of the gate - already open; They are apparently intended for builders. I call on them on a scooter, I have time to drive a couple of hundred meters and see the terminal building in the distance. Then the guards catch up with me.
- Where is your permission to enter? - asks the representative of the security service, critically looking at my scooter.
- So this is not an open airport?
- He is closed.
- How is it closed? After all, he was officially discovered yesterday. The Prime Minister came, cut the ribbons.
The guard thought.
- He is open - in principle. But now closed ... to the event, - he finally found. - Contact the administration, it is outside the airport.
The Zhukovsky Airport administration is located a five -minute walk from the fence with barbed wire - in a small building with a huge sign “Office rental”.
- What are you like snow on our heads? - The Communications Manager Natalia Smirnova tells me.
- How to get here from Moscow? This is some kind of murder! - I am fee.
- Why? I am going to work from Moscow normally every day, ”another employee of Ramport Aero enters the dispute.
- And how much does your road occupy?
“Two hours in one direction,” she says.
The transport problem is one of the main ones for the new airport. It is assumed that in September 2016, Russian Railways modernizes the vacation platform, expresses will be launched before it. But from the rest to the airport - six more kilometers, and it is not supposed to be pulled directly to the Zhukovsky railway for Aeroexpresses. But from the Kotelnikov-the end station of the Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya metro line-buses will go to the airport every 30 minutes; At the exit from the station, you can register for a flight.
Zhukovsky is the first Moscow airport, the main shareholder of which is a foreigner. 25% plus one promotion of the management company of Ramport Aero OJSC belongs to the Russian State Corporation Rostec, the rest is the Lithuanian holding of Avia Solutions Group (the company is also engaged in the aviation business in Poland and Lithuania). The holder of the holding, entrepreneur Gyadiminas Wemyalis, even received several awards for cooperation with companies from the Russian Federation - from the State Duma and the Russian Ministry of Transport. From the accusations from the Lithuanian side - that he is conducting a business with the head of Rostec Sergey Chemezov, included in the sanctions list of the European Union, - the pearls dismisses. “If you want to work abroad, you must be apolitical. You must also be pragmatic and be able to adapt, ”the Delfi website quotes the entrepreneur.
The new airport was built on the basis of the airfield of the flight research institute. Gromov, the main Soviet aviation research institute. Flight trials go to Zhukovsky now. In the late 1990s and in the early 2000s, the first “Invasion” festivals were held from here, but most of all the airfield in Zhukovsky was known that once every two years the International Airlines Salon-Max. The airport can take any types of aircraft without mass restriction, and its runway-more than five thousand meters-the longest in Europe.
According to the representative of the Ramport Aero, Natalia Smirnova, the official opening of the airport does not mean that he will immediately begin to work as a regular mode. The first flight from here is expected only in the second half of June 2016. “Not every airport works around the clock,” Smirnova shrugs his hands.
Representatives of the company decided to show the Medusa Airport. The new terminal is small, but already fully equipped. On its territory there is a “chocolate” and “coffee house”, which so far serve only employees of the airport and builders. An agreement is also concluded with the Duty Free operator. The total area of the terminal is 17 thousand square meters, the declared throughput is four million passengers per year. The total project cost is estimated at 10 billion rubles.
In the coming years, the airport will not become round -the -clock. Its planned throughput after opening will be two million people a year. For comparison: Sheremetyevo served in 2015 31.2 million passengers, Domodedovo - 30.5 million, Vnukovo - 15.8 million.
After putting the second terminal with an area of 60 thousand square meters, the airport's capacity should grow to 12 million passengers. However, it is not yet clear how these plans will be implemented. The State Corporation for the Organization of the Air Traffic (the ORVD) plans to limit Zhukovsky 20 flights per day-due to the fact that its air zone intersects with the Domodedovo air area. This restriction will not allow the airport to accept more than a million people a year.
What companies will fly from Zhukovsky is also unknown. The only Russian low -cost airline was invited here - “Victory”, but the company refused ; at least until a normal railway message is established with the airport. The first four residents of the airport were two passenger carriers-Air Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyzstan) and Scat (Kazakhstan)-and two Russian cargoes-Aviastar-Tu (in the Office-three aircraft) and Sky Gates Eirines (not yet certified, will apply to the Federal Air Transport Agency in early June 2016).
But the most important problem of the airport is different. The construction of Zhukovsky began in 2013, when passenger traffic and three main Moscow airports had to be unloaded annually. The economic crisis has changed the situation-in 2016 the passenger flow falls; Its decrease, as expected , will drag on for five to seven years.
Boris Rybak, director of the InfoMost consulting company, notes that the prospects for the airport in Zhukovsky will depend on his pricing policy. “The situation in the aviation industry with the beginning of the crisis from violent growth has passed to a moderate fall,” he said. “If rational prices are offered in Zhukovsky, this will bring the rest of the airports and revive the competitive environment.”
The airport management in any case is quite optimistic. The Director General of the Ramport Aero Thomas Vaishvili assured that the investment project would be fully implemented, and the crisis, according to him, is not eternal.
Ilya Zhegulev
Moscow