Novaport presents strategy for Murmansk Airport

The terminal reconstruction plans are designed to cater to the Murmansk airport's growing traffic, which is expected to exceed 1.7 million passengers by 2030 (Photo by Murmansk Airport)

Russian airport holding Novaport, which recently acquired Murmansk Airport, has presented a development strategy for the airport for the period until 2025. The project includes construction of a new terminal.

Two options for the airport reconstruction have been presented and are now being reviewed. The first one suggests that additional facilities will be built in stages around the existing terminal with a successive creation of a complex that would unite the new and the old buildings into one.

The second option calls for construction of a whole new terminal – a two-storey building with up to 30,000 square meters of floor space. This new building would be located to the left of the existing main terminal, on the territory of existing Arrival terminal A. This plan would require construction of the land side and aprons adjacent to the new terminal.

Theoretically, both options cater to the airport’s growth requirements within a 15-year perspective.

Although the strategy covers the period until 2025, some development plans have been sketched for until 2030. By 2030, the terminal area should be expanded to 17,200 or even up to 20,328 square meters. By 2020, it should reach between 12,440 and 14,648 square meters, against the current 7,500.

The traffic at Murmansk Airport is forecast to exceed 1 million passengers by 2020. Out of this number, 94% are expected to be generated by domestic operations and only 6% by international operations.

By 2030, the traffic is expected to reach 1.7 million passengers with the same domestic / international ratio.

The main stage of the reconstruction is slated for the period between 2017 and 2019. The required investment is estimated at under 1 billion rubles.

Along with that, the government will provide up to 2.5 billion rubles for reconstruction of the aerodrome infrastructure (which is state-owned, as is the case for all Russian airports) within the framework of Federal Target Program for Development of Russia’s Transport Infrastructure within 2010-2020 timeframe. The aim of the reconstruction is to remove current restrictions regarding types of aircraft the airport can service an intensity of its operation.

In 2015, traffic carried through Murmansk Airport increased 12.6% YOY, to 751,300 passengers. In the first quarter the number of passengers served by the airport continued to climb, and beat 2015 Q1 results by 8%, reaching 154,300 passengers.

Novaport currently owns and manages shares in 11 regional airports: Novosibirsk, Cheliabinsk, Volgograd, Tomsk, Astrakhan, Chita, Tyumen, Perm, Kemerovo, Barnaul, and most recently, Murmansk.