newstodate.aero
Jun 28, 2013 (newstodate): Russia is fighting to grow its domestic regional air traffic as a means of easing the stress on the Moscow hubs now accounting for over 80 percent of all air traffic in the country.
Estimates are that Russia's regional air traffic will double over the next five years, from today's 5.54 mio to 9.1 mio passengers in 2018.
To accommodate this, the volume of regional routes must grow from 1,300 to 1,900 routes during the period, and this entails significant investments in an upgrading of the country's regional airports, most of which have not been redeveloped for more than 20 years.
At today's small local and regional airports in the 19 regions where air transportation is decisive for survival, the average age of the infrastructure is actually over 30 years.
On the airline side, Russia has now certified Bombardier's Q400 as well as the ATR-42 and ATR-72 for use on the country's unpaved airfields and eased taxation in an effort to allow regional and local airlines to build up new aircraft fleets to serve the regional markets where funds have also been allocated to subvention regional flights.
Estimates are that Russia's regional air traffic will double over the next five years, from today's 5.54 mio to 9.1 mio passengers in 2018.
To accommodate this, the volume of regional routes must grow from 1,300 to 1,900 routes during the period, and this entails significant investments in an upgrading of the country's regional airports, most of which have not been redeveloped for more than 20 years.
At today's small local and regional airports in the 19 regions where air transportation is decisive for survival, the average age of the infrastructure is actually over 30 years.
On the airline side, Russia has now certified Bombardier's Q400 as well as the ATR-42 and ATR-72 for use on the country's unpaved airfields and eased taxation in an effort to allow regional and local airlines to build up new aircraft fleets to serve the regional markets where funds have also been allocated to subvention regional flights.