Pulkovo Begins Building

Published: March 19, 2014 (Issue # 1802)

Northern Capital Gateway, the company that operates St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport, has announced a new tender for the construction and operation of a maintenance complex for the airport, reported Interfax on Mar. 13.

Worth 850 million rubles ($23.4 million), the tender requirements include the construction of a 200-seat cafeteria, a fuel station, a heated garage for snow-removal vehicles, a covered parking area for airport transport as well as a boiler house and cleaning facilities.

Bids for the tender close Apr. 11 with a decision to be announced Apr. 16, reported Interfax.

The current maintenance facilities used by the airport are located off-site at a significant distance from Pulkovo’s new Terminal 1. With no wash or fuel station for airport vehicles at the airport, employees are forced to travel off the airfield for technical servicing, said a spokesperson for Pulkovo airport.

The new complex will not only be more convenient for employees but will also be more economical for the company, with money saved on fuel and time as well as costs cut on renting facilities outside the airport, said the spokesperson.

Construction of the new complex is due to start in May and is scheduled to be finished by December 2014.

The long-awaited new, centralized terminal of St. Petersburg’s international Pulkovo airport began operation in December 2013, with flights from Pulkovo 2 being gradually transferred to the new terminal, which is located six kilometers away.

From Mar. 20, the flights of 18 airlines will be transferred to the new terminal including: Norwegian Air Shuttle, Vueling Airlines, El Al Israel Airlines, Estonian Air, Air Berlin, British Airways, Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Air Baltic, Swiss, Czech Airlines, FINNAIR, Turkish Airlines, Air Armenia, Azerbaijan Airlines, Ukraine International Airlines, Air Moldova and Air Astana.

Air France and KLM will continue to operate their flights from Pulkovo 2 for the time being.

With all the changes, Pulkovo airport continues to urge passengers to clarify terminal information for flights in advance at Pulkovo’s website: www.pulkovoairport.ru.

Built over a three-year period, the new terminal has the capacity to handle up to 17 million passengers annually and will eventually be joined to the current Pulkovo I terminal, which is currently undergoing renovation.

In February 2014, more than 752,700 passengers flew into Pulkovo airport, 17.3 percent higher than in February 2013, reported Interfax. The airport also reported a 5.8 percent increase on international flights and a 28.3 percent increase on domestic flights in comparison to the same period last year.

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