Kaliningrad airport’s new terminal put in operation

The new facility will include three baggage belts (Khrabrovo Airport)

At Khrabrovo airport, which serves Russia’s exclave city Kaliningrad, the first portion of a new terminal was put into operation on July 22. The facility will service exclusively domestic flights for the time being, an airport spokesperson commented.

International flights at Khrabrovo are currently served by the old terminal. The new facility is expected to begin offering international services once the requisite immigration and customs equipment has been installed there.

The airport’s reconstruction comes as Russia is preparing for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Construction deadlines have slipped several times. According to the most recent reports, the first phase of the work was set for completion in June 2017, and the entire project was expected to be finished in March 2018.

The plan is for the construction project, which is being funded by the airport’s management company Novaport, to eventually more than double the new three-story 40,000-squear meter building’s size and allow for a throughput capacity of 3.5 million passengers per year, or 1,250 per hour. During the World Cup, Khrabrovo is expected to be serving up to 1,950 incoming passengers per day.

The airport of Kaliningrad is also undergoing reconstruction of its airfield infrastructure. Funded from the federal budget, the project includes the lenghthening and reinforcement of the runway, the installation of new radiotechnical, lighting, and weather forecast equipment, and also the building of new aircraft parking spaces and a high-speed taxiway. This phase should be completed by year-end.

Khravbrovo, which embraces an open skies policy, served 1.571 million passengers in 2016, an increase of 1.85% year-on-year. Domestic traffic grew 8% to 1.508 million, while international traffic plummeted 57.16% to 62,400. Q1 2017 showed a decrease in both segments, totaling a 3.56% cumulative traffic drop year-on-year.