Vnukovo airport serviced 71,700 flights and 4 million 208 thousand passengers in the first half of 2012 (+9.1% and +19,7% respectively, as compared to the first half of 2011), the airport’s press-service reports. AEX.ru

At that 43900 flights have been performed and 2 million 793 thousand passengers have been transported on domestic airlines. As for international airlines – 28800 flights have been performed and 1 million 415 thousand passengers have been transported.

Vnukovo airport serviced 14700 flights in June 2012 (+18,2%). The airport’s total passenger traffic was 979.9 thousand passengers (+40.4%).

The increase of the scope of provided services was above average values of the last years because of seasonal expansion of demand for air transportation, arrival of new airlines and opening of new destinations.

The airport’s domestic route network includes 72 destinations. During 12 months (since July 2011) UTair opened regular services to Kurgan, Nazran, Syktyvkar, Tambov, Usinsk, Yoshkar Ola, Makhachkala; Severstal started performing flights to Veliki Ustyug and Vorkuta; Yakutiya – to Tiksi and Makhachkala, Transaero – Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Transaero launched regular services to Magadan, Blagoveshcensk and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in late June 2012; Red Wings has started performing flights to Kaliningrad.

The most significant increase of passenger traffic on domestic airlines in June is accounted for UTair’s flights. In addition, Yakutiya, Gazprom avia and Rossiya have also contributed to increase of Vnukovo’s passenger traffic.

Moreover, 414 thousand passengers have been serviced on international airlines (+140% as compared to June 2011). At that 59% of passengers took advantage of regular flights and the rest 41% made use of charter ones.

The strongest growth of passenger traffic was recorded on regular international airlines. First of all, it is connected with arrival of new carriers: Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa, Transaero, Blue Bird Airways and Georgian Airways have transported more than 100 thousand passengers in June 2012 (about 45% of passenger traffic on international airlines). UTair provided another 36% of the airport’s passenger traffic in this segment (+300% as compared to June 2011).

During last 12 months (since July 2011) 22 new routes to foreign cities were opened. UTair added 8 destinations to its international network (Tallinn, Dushanbe, Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Krivoi Rog, Fergana and Saloniki), Transaero – 4 ones (Tel-Aviv, Rome, Milan and Venice), Lufthansa – 3 ones (Frankfurt on the Main, Hamburg, Dusseldorf), Turkish Airlines – 3 ones (Istanbul, Ankara, Antalya), Blue Bird Airways – 3 ones (Rhodes, Heraklion, Kerkyra), Georgian Airways – 1 (Tbilisi).

International charter flights have been performed on 22 main routes. The most popular destinations were Turkey and Egypt (73% of the airport’s international charter passenger traffic).

Vnukovo intends to increase its passenger traffic. It will be increased by means of opening new destinations and increasing the number of flights on the existing ones. It will be possible after completion of Terminal A’s construction and reconstruction of runway 1. The completion of these works is scheduled for December 2012.