RUSSIA: Sheremetyevo Airport Updates Northern Terminal Complex

Moscow Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO), which received approval to develop a Northern Terminal Complex in June, said in an update that total private investments for the project will reach $865 million.

The main renovation stage, which will be completed by 2018, will increase airport capacity to 55 million passengers per year. By 2026, capacity will grow to 80 million per year. The number of takeoffs and landings will rise from 55 to 90 per hour by 2018 when the third runway will be built.

According to SVO, 600 meters of passenger and 300 meters of baggage tunnels have already been built under the existing runways between northern and southern parts. Both tunnels, which cost $245 million, will be 1,936 meters long and will enable transfer passengers and baggage to travel between the airport sectors within five minutes.

According to an SVO statement, the system will accommodate 11.5 million passengers and 5.9 million pieces of luggage per year.

The new Terminal B, which is being built on the northern part of the airport, costs $305 million. Most domestic flights will be transferred to Terminal B.

Currently, Aeroflot Airline, the main carrier at Sheremetyevo, operates most domestic and internationals flights from Terminal D, but also uses E and F.

In addition, SVO is developing a cargo hub with Volga-Dnepr Group.

In September, Moscow Domodedovo International Airport announced it will be able to handle a combined passenger capacity of 55-58 million in its existing T1 and T2 terminals when T2 construction is complete in 2018.

RUSSIA: Russian Market For Changes,Aeroflot To Absorb Transaero Airlines

Cakes and smiles: There’s some appearance of normality in the way that Russia’s air transport business has continued to function and launch important new routes in the past year, albeit miles behind its economic potential. Transaero Airlines’ flurry of new destinations includes: St Petersburg to Shanghai in June, Moscow Vnukovo to Delhi in February, and Moscow Domodedovo to Malta in April, while Aeroflot’s fast-growing low cost unit, Pobeda, which has generated near-30% growth at Moscow Vnukovo this year, launched Sochi/Adler to Kazan, amongst many other new routes, in May.

The recent announcement that Russia’s (majority) state-owned carrier Aeroflot was going to take over the country’s second biggest carrier, Transaero Airlines, will have a significant impact on competition in the Russian market. Based on latest passenger figures from the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) the two carriers accounted for 43% of passenger movements on Russian carriers in the first seven months of 2015. Add in the figures for Rossiya Airlines, ORENAIR, Pobeda, Donavia and Aurora, all of which are either fully-owned or majority-owned by Aeroflot, and the market share climbs to over 57%.

Passenger numbers on Russian airlines are up 1.1% in the first seven months of this year from 51.3 million to 51.8 million. While UTair and Nordwind Airlines have seen significant drops in demand, Aeroflot’s LCC Pobeda has made an impressive start, already ranked ninth among the nation’s airlines. Another fast-growing airline is Azur Air (formerly known as Katekavia – IATA code ZF), which has been around for 20 years but has grown its scheduled services significantly in recent times thanks to the acquisition of several 757s and 767s from UTair.
Pobeda driving growth at Moscow Vnukovo

Government statistics for airport traffic in the first six months of 2015 shows a mixed picture. Of the top 15 airports 11 are showing a drop in traffic compared to the first half of 2014, with Rostov-on-Don seeing the biggest drop of almost 17%. The rapid growth of Aeroflot’s in-house LCC Pobeda at Moscow Vnukovo has helped the airport move past St Petersburg into third place among Russian airports. Sochi/Adler is apparently still benefitting from its raised profile and new infrastructure after hosting last year’s winter Olympics.

The fastest-growing airport according to these statistics is Simferopol, in the disputed region of Crimea. Since February 2014 the airport has been under the control of Russian forces and the airport now handles flights almost exclusively to and from Russia. As a result, passenger numbers at Russian airports (including Simferopol) are up 0.5% in the first half of 2015. If Simferopol is not included, demand across Russia’s other airports is down 1.3%.

An Istanbul-style mega-hub for Moscow? These images are from a magazine produced in Russia in 1992 by the anna.aero publisher, Paul Hogan, who was involved in British Airways’ plans for “Air Russia” – a proposed Helsinki-style hub at Moscow Domodedovo. Hogan believes the potential for a Moscow mega-hub as good as Istanbul persists, and this was the subject of his presentation at the CEE Aviation conference in Budapest 3 September.

China and Turkey capacity still growing
Using OAG schedule data (which still considers Simferopol in Ukraine) a comparison has been made for the leading country markets from Russian airports in September 2015 and compared with September 2013. On this basis, not surprisingly, Ukraine has become the leading international country market with seat capacity doubling in two years. However, if we were to exclude flights to Simferopol (which account for 80% of the seat capacity), Ukraine would become only the tenth biggest market, with capacity down 60%.

Again comparing international services between September 2013 and September 2015 reveals that among western European airlines, Germany’s two leading carriers have made significant reductions in seat capacity, with airberlin down 40% and Lufthansa down 50%. In the last week, Lufthansa has suspended three Russian routes; from Frankfurt to Moscow Vnukovo, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. airberlin has axed its Berlin Tegel-St Petersburg connection and its Munich-Moscow Domodedovo service.
Moscow’s potential as a mega-hub explored

Last week anna.aero’s publisher, Paul Hogan, gave a presentation at the CEE Aviation Conference in Budapest. With the title “How good would it be for Russia’s air transport if everything was normal?” You can download his 20-slide presentation below.

TAV-operated Tbilisi Airport serving the capital of Georgia (with which Russia was at war in 2008) celebrated the launch of Aeroflot’s new daily service from Moscow Sheremetyevo last October. Despite the current crisis, Ukrainian traffic is also up substantially, although the picture is complicated as many agencies and groups – such as OAG – define Crimea’s growing traffic base as part of Ukraine.

SLOVENIA: Ljubljana Airport Passenger Growth Of 11% In 2015

Ljubljana Airport, owned by the Fraport Airport group, serves the capital of Slovenia. Located at the middle of an old trade route between the northern Adriatic Sea and the Danube region, it was the historical capital of Carniola, a Slovene-inhabited part of Austria/Hungary.

Now the city is home to 277,000 people, and in 2014 over one million on-night stays were had by international visitors, with Italy, Germany and the US being the three largest countries for tourists visiting Ljubljana according to the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia. So far this year, the city’s airport is reporting growth of 11% with July seeing passenger numbers surpass the 170,000 mark for the first time.

Ljubljana witnesses growth again
After seeing a period of traffic decline between 2009 and 2012, the airport recorded positive growth for 2013 and 2014 respectively. So far in 2015, the airport has witnessed growth in five of the seven months where data is available, with the months from April through to July recording double digit growth, most notably in May when passenger numbers were up 16% when compared to the same period last year. At this rate Ljubljana Airport might be able to reach 1.5 million by the end of the year. Nonetheless, this is still well below the 1.67 million achieved in 2008.


2015 growth much faster than in previous years
When comparing the same time periods of the past three years between the months of January and July, growth in 2015 has been much faster than that experienced in the previous two years. 2013 and 2014 both showed average growth results of 3.7% and 3.1% respectively. However 2015 has witnessed over double that of 2013 with an average monthly growth rate of 7.8%. The higher growth rates in the most recent summer months means that overall passenger numbers are up 11% in the first seven months of 2015.
SVID says “Good”

When analysing the passenger statistics of 2014 for Ljubljana, the result shows that the airport achieved a SVID score of 8.69 (“Good”). For a comparison, an analysis was also carried out for Zagreb and Belgrade airports. The reason that these two airports were chosen was because of them both also being capitals, and also due to the close proximity that both have to Slovenia in relation to other European capitals. Zagreb achieved a score of 6.46 (“Good”) and Belgrade achieved a score of 8.77, also (“Good”).

Adria Airways runs the show
After reporting a growth when compared to last September of nearly 14%, Adria Airways maintains the number one carrier position out of Ljubljana. One noticeable change from last summer is that Turkish Airlines has now overtaken easyJet to become the airport’s second largest carrier, helped in part by the Star Alliance member reporting a growth in seat capacity of over 25%, making it the third fastest growing carrier out of the Slovenian capital after Montenegro Airlines (+39%) and Air Serbia (+49%).

With SWISS also serving the airport, it means that Star is the major alliance at Ljubljana with three carriers present. SkyTeam and oneworld are also both present at the airport. However, each is only represented by one airline; Air France and Finnair respectively. One airline that is also climbing up the table is Wizz Air, after recording growth in seat capacity of 16% when compared to last summer, the LCC can expect to overtake easyJet (+7.6%) for third spot in 2016 if the rate of growth for both airlines continues at current levels.

LOT Polish Airlines to resume Warsaw
From 2 March next year, LOT Polish Airlines is to resume services to Ljubljana with an initial five times weekly service from Warsaw Chopin operated by E170s, meaning that the airline will help grow the Star presence in Ljubljana to four carriers. From 26 March, the service is expected to increase to six times weekly, with Q400s also being introduced onto the sector alongside the currently planned E-Jet operations.


Zurich now #1 route
After recording a growth of nearly 36%, the 470-kilometre sector to Zurich has become the number one route from Ljubljana, helped by Adria Airways increasing its capacity on the city pair by 9.8%, and SWISS introducing services on the sector in March, according to OAG Schedules Analyser. Although Frankfurt, also run by the Fraport group, witnessed an increase of 0.4% in seat capacity, Zurich’s larger expansion pushes the German hub down to become the second most popular destination in S15 in relation to capacity. What is interesting to note however is that the top four routes from the Slovenian capital are to the large Star Alliance hubs in Europe, with services to Stockholm Arlanda and Copenhagen (both SAS hubs) not appearing in the top 12 routes, but served by Adria Airways, with the former launching on 23 April. The fastest growing route in the top 12 is Belgrade (highlighted in light green), which is new to the list after witnessing a growth of 49%, helped by the increase in services by Air Serbia. Another new route to the list is London Luton (also highlighted in light green), after seeing a seat capacity increase of nearly 24% by operating carrier Wizz Air. As a result of growth witnessed on these two routes, it means that Moscow Sheremetyevo and Skopje both leave the top 12.