Traffic through Russia’s Zhukovsky soars by 390 per cent in June
Zhukovsky International Airport (ZIA), located some 30 km to the south-east of Moscow, experienced a remarkable 390 per cent traffic growth in June this year compared to June 2017.
The airport, which hosted its first commercial flights only two years ago, has for the first time seen its traffic exceed 100,000 passengers in a single month, partly inspired by the popular FIFA World Cup finals being held in Russia.
Commenting on the operational performance of last month, Tomas Vaishvila, general director of the airport’s operator Ramport-Aero, emphasised that the figure is a significant milestone, “which marks a new level and makes us confident that the airport’s development is moving in the right direction.”
He admitted that the sudden growth was only “partly spurred by the additional traffic coming for the World Cup,” adding that the target was set independently of the big sporting event. “It is stimulated mostly through [our] expanding route network and increases in frequencies on scheduled flights.”
The airport’s traffic during the first half of this year reached 472,877 passengers, outstripping the results for the entire year 2017. Out of the 15 international and two domestic destinations served by seven airlines, the most popular in the first six months of 2018 were Minsk, Tel-Aviv and Simferopol. Connections with China are also expanding and now include scheduled services to the five cities of Guangzhou, Xian, Fuzhou, Haikou and Jinan.
ZIA is managed by Ramport Aero, which is majority-owned by Lithuania’s Avia Solutions Group’s 75 per cent minus one share, and Rostec, Russia’s state-run advanced technology corporation.
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