The Northern Capital Gateway Company, which manages Pulkovo Airport, announces the development of the Runway project aimed at mass employment of students of educational institutions in St. Petersburg.

795 students from more than 25 universities and colleges of the Northern capital have gained experience in operational and office services at Pulkovo Airport since the start of the Runway project. 30% of them are students of specialized educational institutions, such as: St. Petersburg University of Civil Aviation, St. Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation, St. Petersburg State University of Communications, Russian Customs Academy, Aviation and Transport College.

The project allows students to start a professional career in a large company, acquire customer service skills, teamwork, develop their leadership skills and join the world of aviation, which combines solutions from several industries at once.

Young people have the opportunity to get a profession, combining work with study, and perform tasks with flexible schedules in key positions: check-in and boarding agent, aircraft cleaning and hospitality, luggage system operator and screening service, student office assistant.

The Student Office project has become a logical continuation of the Runway. 100 students from the leading universities of St. Petersburg, including the Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg State University, the National Research University Higher School of Economics, the St. Petersburg National Research University of Information economy and public service, St. Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design and others. 

It allows students to realize their professional potential, take part in the key projects of the company, take the initiative and offer ideas aimed at developing business processes.

Participants of student projects undergo the necessary training at the VVSS and for the first time work with experienced mentors.

Thus, the airport attracts young personnel at the stage of training and immediately after graduation, which makes it possible to grow and retain future specialists for the aviation industry.

Leonid Sergeev, General Director of Northern Capital Gateway LLC:

– VVSS pays special attention to the quality of service and the creation of a comfortable atmosphere for passengers. Along with this, Pulkovo Airport is undergoing a digital transformation, introducing advanced technologies into its operations. In this regard, we see as one of our key tasks the involvement of youth representatives, university students and students of the city's colleges into the team.

Our plan is to increase the number of places for students up to 1,500 by offering new vacancies, to introduce targeted programs and internship programs together with specialized educational institutions to create a promising talent pool for the industry.

Since the start of the Runway project in October 2021, 30 students have been transferred to permanent positions at Pulkovo Airport.

To date, the company employs more than 3,600 employees, 1,728 people represent the units involved in the Runway project. Every third employee of these departments is a student. During the implementation of the project at Pulkovo Airport, students worked 70,000 hours.

The project was implemented with the support of the Government of St. Petersburg: ex-vice-governor Maxim Sokolov, ex-chairman of the transport committee, now vice-governor Kirill Polyakov, chairman of the committee for science and higher education of St. Petersburg Andrey Maksimov. The VVSS is also grateful for the support of the project to Olga Dergunova, Director of the Graduate School of Management (SPbSU).