A new terminal at Sochi International Airport was officially opened last Thursday (16 September), completing the first milestone in a programme to prepare the airport for the Olympic Winter Games to be held in the Russian resort city in four years time.
The new terminal, which has opened to operate and handling domestic and international flights, initially lifts Sochi airport's throughput capacity from 900 to 1,600 passengers per hour. This will rise to 2,500 passengers per hour when an airport finger complete with ten telescopic gangways is completed in 2012 and ultimately to 3,800 passengers per hour in time for the Winter Games.
Chief executive of Basic Element, whose Basel Aero airport operating unit runs the airport, Oleg Deripaska says: "This is a major event not just for Basic Element as the investor and builder for the new airport terminal complex and several other Sochi 2014 Olympic sites, but also for the main Russian resort city of Sochi and the Krasnodar Territory, as a modern airport is a key element of the region's future prosperity. " Overall investment in the airport terminal is valued at 6.2 billion rubles ($200 million).
Sochi is one of Russia's top ten airports for domestic passengers. It handled 1.4 million passengers in total last year. Earlier this year Turkish Airlines began a new route to the airport from Istanbul.
Source: Flight Daily News
