Gelendzhik airport has a huge growth potential. At one time we ordered a study on the question: how many passengers arrive in Anapa, then get into a taxi, and go in the direction of Gelendzhik? Anapa is our nearest airport - only 90 kilometres away. We ordered such a study to understand what kind of traffic we could have if we could take it to ourselves. According to the results of this study, it turned out that a considerable proportion of passengers arriving in Anapa, then get into a taxi and go in the direction of Novorossiysk and Gelendzhik. 16% is Gelendzhik, together with Novorossiysk it is about 30%. This result fully confirmed our data on the assessment of the development of Gelendzhik airport.

We conducted surveys of people who came to rest in Gelendzhik on the city embankment. The survey consisted of three questions: where did you come from, whether by air, and to which airport. Accordingly, there were three possible answers to the third question: Anapa, Gelendzhik, Krasnodar. The answers to this questionnaire were divided into exactly three parts. As a result, the traffic of Gelendzhik airport is only a third of the traffic that we could receive if we did not have infrastructure restrictions.

The main infrastructure constraints for us are our terminal. The photo shows our current terminal and you see a line of about a hundred meters to the right of passengers who are trying to enter the terminal. Our current terminal is a 1600 square meter building with a capacity of only 140 people per hour, with two boarding gates. Initially, this building was designed as a cargo terminal, and then it was converted into a passenger terminal.

Now we have passenger traffic: in 2018 - 294,000, in 2019 - 338,000, in 2020 - 483,000. In general, there should be at least a million. And on these preconditions, a decision was made to build a new terminal. We held an international architectural competition, which was attended by representatives from Italy, Ireland, England and Russia. Won the project of the Italian architectural studio Fuksas with this concept.

We didn't really like it at first. But then we asked him to reveal in more detail in order to understand the concept of the architect. And, in the end, such a handsome man turned out - a bird that changes the direction of movement in flight. However, everyone can see something of their own here.

It is a terminal with an area of ​​more than 16 thousand square meters and a throughput capacity of up to 900 passengers per hour or more than a million passengers per year.

The terminal will have 6 boarding gates. In addition to the standard ones, there will be 12 self-check-in and baggage check-in counters. We are now trying to make a registration system that would integrate all existing registration systems from Amadeus, Saber, and self-registration counters will be console and universal. They can also be used for self-registration of baggage and its delivery by the passengers themselves.

At the same time, the coronavirus epidemic has become not a brake, but, on the contrary, a catalyst for our project. All our calculations have only been confirmed. In 2020, the growth in passenger traffic was 42%. For 2021, we are planning not so dynamic, but also growth.

The total investment is over 5 billion rubles. The construction completion date is the end of 2021.

Gelendzhik Airport was awarded the Russian Air Gateway national award as the best investment project implemented by a private investor in 2020.