Restart of work suspended (232 words)

Published: 4/12/2001

According to local press reports the suspended construction at Fyodorovka Airport in Omsk, may be resumed after a visit to the region by the Minister of Transport Sergey Frank following discussions by the Council of the Association of the Siberian Agreement in Novosibirsk. The reason for the renewed interest in completing the airport appears to be that currently Western Siberia does not have a runway that completely meets international standards. In order to have one, the runway of Tolmachevo Airport has to be closed for a proposed reconstruction, at a cost estimated to be 500m rubles. The Council however, came to the conclusion that the Federal budget, which has planned funding for completion of Omsk as well between 1997-2000, was not in a position to provide the funding. The General Director of local carrier Omskavia, Evgeny Romanyuk however has suggested that the runway at Fyodorovka can accept larger aircraft and could be brought into operation very quickly, with the installation of navigation equipment. The revenues from operating the runway used for the completion of the terminal facilities of Fyodorovka. Romanyuk has a strong motivation to do that as, besides Tolmachevo, the airline other base airport Omsk-Tsentralny in the center of the city is also planned to be reconstructed leaving Omskavia without an airfield. Whether the region's major carrier Sibir will support he development of the airport and appears to be less clear. It would seem that the chances of any major diversion of traffic to Omsk are unlikely without the encouragement of a major carrier.

Article ID: 2486