Moscow Eager to Extend to Regional Airports
Moscow government is ready to funnel up to 55 billion rubles into rebuilding 16 regional airports, buying out majority stakes in them to protect investments. The analysts speculate that by this move Moscow wants to ensure passenger flow for its subsidiaries, Atlant-Soyuz Airlines and Vnukovo Airport, and open regions for its construction and trading companies. But not all regional airports are willing to take the assistance of Russia’s capital.
Moscow will be investing in rebuilding 16 regional airports till 2010, Sergey Kalitin, deputy chief of Moscow government’s transport and communication department, announced yesterday. Each airport could receive up to 3 billion rubles, the official specified.
The list of airports that Moscow is eager to shore up includes airports in Ivanovo, Nizhni Novgorod, Lipetsk, Kaluga, Voronezh, Volgograd, Petrozavodsk, Bryansk, Tambov, Orel, Orenburg, Kursk, Belgorod, Ulyanovsk, Kurgan and Kostroma. With regard to the previously announced plans to boost Nizhni Novgorod airport by roughly 10 billion rubles, the overall amount reaches 55 billion rubles.
According to the analysts, Moscow expects the project to generate economic effect by directing the city’s capital to regions and by ensuring loading of Moscow subsidiaries, Atlant-Soyuz Airlines and Vnukovo Airport that will profit by additional work.
“No doubt, the better part of flights from these airports will be made by Atlant-Soyuz to Vnukovo airport,” said Oleg Panteleev, chief of the analytical service at Aviaport Agency. “Moreover, Moscow government has strong construction and trading business that is longing for the regions.”
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All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 01, 2007
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