Ramport Aero confirms deadline for terminal expansion at Ramenskoye Airport

Ramport passenger terminal on November 26, 2015 (Photo by Russian Aviation Insider)

By Artyom Korenyako

Despite the current decline in passenger traffic in Russia, Ramport Aero (with 75% minus 1 share held by Avia Solutions Group, and the rest by Transportation and Exhibition Complex Russia) intends to invest in turning Ramenskoye airfield outside Moscow into an international airport, Ramport Aero CEO Tomas Vaisvila has told Russian Aviation Insider following last week’s meeting of the company’s board of directors.

The board of Rostec Corporation (owns 100% of Transportation and Exhibition Complex Russia) approved the investment project in the summer of 2014. Ramport is currently completing the first phase, which involves the commissioning a modular terminal with 17,600 sq.m of floor area. Under the contract, the building is to be inaugurated by July 31, 2016 at the latest, but Ramport expects it to be put into operation in the first quarter of next year.

“We are going to complete ahead of schedule,” Vaisvila says. “All the terminal equipment is already in place. No additional purchases are required. The internal systems have to be completed. Heat and electricity supply is on its way. In early December, we will begin to install passport control booths. Contracts have been signed for the provision of the three most important landside services: duty-free stores, food courts, and advertising spaces. In mid-December, we will start installing new high-mast lighting.”

According to the senior manager, prior to commissioning the terminal Ramport needs to obtain two documents: “First, we are waiting for the airfield to get reclassified from an international freight airport to and international passenger and freight airport. Second, we will need an aviation security certificate. We have applied for it, and the Federal Air Transport Agency has already set up a special committee”.

By the end of 2016, the new commercial aviation sector at Ramenskoye is expected to have handled approximately 2 million passengers. In the future, the phase one areas of the terminal will allow for increasing its throughput capacity to 4 million passengers annually.

The second phase of the project is to begin in September 2016. No later than by March 31, 2018, the modular terminal area will be expanded by 30,000 sq.m., and a 100,000-sq.m shopping center will be built inside the terminal. In the course of the third phase, which is expected to be completed in 2020, an MRO center will be erected, and the terminal will be expanded by a further 13,000 sq.m, bringing its overall floor space to 60,000 sq.m.

“We discussed the second and third phases at the recent Ramport board meeting,” Vaisvila says. “Sberbank confirmed the allocation of a loan for these plans. The board understands that the situation in the industry has changed; however, this does not mean that it will last forever. Therefore, there has been no change of plans for us. We continue on our way. We have no reason to panic, because we have been implementing the first phase entirely with our shareholders’ money, without borrowing from banks.”

The first phase of the modular passenger terminal at Ramenskoye as of November 25, 2015 (total area of 17,600 sq.m)