A Russian-led consortium, comprising Singapore's Changi Airport (CAI), Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Russia’s diversified business group Basic Element, has acquired Vladivostok International Airport in Russia’s Far East from Sheremetyevo International Airport.

Pending regulatory and corporate approvals, the consortium will own 100% of JSC Terminal Vladivostok (which owns and operates the airport terminal building), and 52.16% of JSC International
Airport Vladivostok which holds the airport license. Each partner in the consortium will hold an equal stake of 33.3%.
VVO offers lot of potential for traffic growth
Vladivostok International Airport is strategically located at the crossing of air routes between Russia’s Far East and the Asia-Pacific. With its geographical advantage and the Open Skies policy
introduced in 2011, the airport will be positioned as a major air hub for domestic and international traffic.
The consortium said it will focus on expanding the airport’s route network, increasing flight frequencies, and improving its service offerings.
At a recent press event in Moscow, Singapore Airlines’ subsidiary Scoot revealed that it might launch flights to Vladivostok. Russian Aviation Insider quoted SIA’s Regional vice president Europe,
Subhash Menon, as saying that the airline is "exploring the possibility”.
“We certainly do not consider Moscow, but Russia is a big country. Flights to Vladivostok or seasonal flights to Saint-Petersburg is what we might be looking into,” he said.
Decreasing cargo volumes
Russian company Air Catering-Vladivostok LLC in 2012 completed the construction of a new cargo facility at the airport with an annual throughput of 30,000 tonnes of mainly palletized cargo. The
facility was commissioned in April 2013 and now enables the airport to efficiently handle ULDs for import, export and domestic flights.
According to Russian Aviation Insider, which researched the latest available data from the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency on cargo throughput at the top-20 Russian airports, Vladivostok
airport handled 23,108 tonnes of cargo in 2015, down 24.7% compared with the 30,689 tonnes handled in 2014. The data showed that all three airports in the Russian Far East, Vladivostok, Khabarovk
and Novosibirsk, lost cargo traffic in 2015.
Nol van Fenema
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