Transport Minister: Crimea’s Simferopol airport may become one of
Russia’s largest
Economy
April 06, 18:03 UTC+4
“It will be better to build a single terminal with account for
development, designed for at least 5 million”, Maxim Sokolov said
Itar-Tass/ Alexander Ryumin
ANAPA AIRPORT, April 06, 17:47 /ITAR-TASS/. The airport of Simferopol,
the capital of the Republic of Crimea – a former Ukrainian region that
recently joined Russia – may in the future become one of Russia’s
largest with an annual throughput capacity of over 5 million
passengers, Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said Sunday.
The current airport compound with a few passenger terminals makes it
possible “to easily increase the airport’s throughput capacity to
2.5-3 million passengers annually”, Sokolov said. “However,
afterwards, it will be better to build a single terminal with account
for development, designed for at least 5 million,” he said.
Simferopol takes over air traffic control within Crimea
In 2013, passenger transportation of the Simferopol international
airport totaled 1.2 million people, 8 percent more than in 2012.
International flights, which then included flights from Russia,
accounted for the bulk of transportation.
“Last year, Russian airlines transported 425,000 passengers to Crimea
during the summer season,” Sokolov said. “We hope to increase the
passenger flow during this season to 680,000-700,000 people thanks to
current programs to subsidize air transport services.”
According to the minister, the air transportation subsidizing program,
which covers three routes from airports in the southern Russian cities
of Krasnodar, Rostov and Mineralnye Vody, will also cover Simferopol.
Five airlines have bidden for participation besides Russia’s flag
carrier Aeroflot.
European air traffic regulator suspends flights to Crimea
“We are also planning to increase the number of passengers by
300,000-320,000 people through redistribution of funds in domestic
transportation allotments and by requesting additional funds from the
Finance Ministry,” Sokolov said.
The ministry’s plans will make it possible to establish direct air
links between Simferopol and Russian cities with populations of over
500,000 people in the country’s European part and in Siberia, “roughly
up to Novosibirsk”, he explained. “As a result, some 20-30 cities will
be able to take part in the program,” the minister said.
Besides, a default airline may appear in Simferopol in line with a
proposal submitted to the Transport Ministry by the Red Wings airline,
which is ready to directly link Simferopol with 15 Russian cities.
“We are working on the issue. There is no decision yet,” Sokolov said,
adding that “serious subsidies will be required to ensure that the
airline is not operating at a loss, as the passenger flow has not been
formed here yet”.
Medvedev instructs to propose more flights in Crimea within a week
Four Russian airports, namely Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo
outside the Russian capital Moscow and Pulkovo in the northwestern
city of St. Petersburg, serve more than 5 million people annually in
the country.
Crimea’s reunification with Russia
The Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, a city with a special status on
the Crimean Peninsula, held a referendum on March 16 in which most of
their residents decided for the area to secede from Ukraine and
reunify with Russia. The admission deals with Moscow were signed on
March 18.
The developments followed a coup in Ukraine in February 2014 that
occurred after months of anti-government protests, often violent,
which started in November 2013 when the country suspended the signing
of an association agreement with the European Union in favor of closer
ties with Russia.
Security concerns caused President Viktor Yanukovich to leave Ukraine.
Amid deadly riots that involved radicals, new people were brought to
power in Kiev. The new self-proclaimed Ukrainian authorities are not
recognized by the leaders of Russia and Crimea.
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Crimea became part of the Russian Empire in 1783, when it was
conquered by Russian Empress Catherine the Great. In the Soviet Union,
Crimea used to be part of Russia until 1954, when Nikita Khrushchev,
the first secretary of the USSR’s Communist Party, transferred it to
Ukraine’s jurisdiction as a gift. With the collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1991, Crimea became part of newly independent Ukraine and
remained in that capacity until March 2014, when it joined Russia.
Now that Crimea has reunified with the Russian Federation, work to
integrate the area into the country’s infrastructure systems is
actively ongoing. A transitional period will be in place until January
1, 2015, during which the new constituent members of Russia will be
incorporated into the country’s economic, financial, credit, legal,
state power and military conscription systems. According to the
Crimean and Ukrainian statistics bodies, as of early 2014, Crimea had
a population of 1,959,000 people, and Sevastopol has a population of
384,000 people. As of late 2013, Russians accounted for 58.5 percent,
Ukrainians for 24.3 percent, Crimean Tatars for 12.1 percent,
Belarusians for 1.4 percent and Armenians for 1.1 percent of Crimea’s
population.