Focus on larger airports (272 words)

Published: 4/23/2001

Federal funding for Siberian airports GSGA has decided that 3 major airports in Siberia, will receive direct financial support from the Federal budget. The airports include Novosibirsk's Tolmachevo Airport, Krasnoyarsk Airport and Irkutsk Airport. The reasons for choosing the airports for unspecified funding, is the fact that they are the largest airports in the region, with Tolmachevo handling 1.02m passengers in 2000, largely provided by the airport's largest carrier Sibir, which is also a major user of Irkutsk. The civil aviation department of the Ministry of Transport, the GSGA, has been unclear as to how much funding will be provided, but it comes after a number of years of very little Federal support for airports. The GSGA says that it is part of a plan to support all of Russia's 533 civil airports, 69 of which have 69 international status, with 40 airports getting Federal funding in the first wave of financing. It appears from statements by the GSGA that the funding may be used not only to undertake needed upgrade and maintenance, but also as a means of reducing airport numbers given that it believes there is too much capacity and some of the airports are not viable. For other airports in the region the funding announcement has however, caused protests. Tomsk and Kemerovo both claim the need for funding, as have Altay Airlines operator of Barnaul Airport, which is trying to raise funding from the region's administration. A spokesman from Novokuznetsk Airport however, while predicting airport closures in Northern Siberia believes that the targeted funding may finally kill of some of the more marginal airports. The GSGA's predessor the FSVT, had a number of plans for the funding of airports during the last few years with little tangible in the way of funding. Many of the major airports have raised funding for upgrade elsewhere in the interim, but there is little doubt that the infrastructure requires upgrading.

Article ID: 2508