Moscow Sheremetyevo targets South America

Moscow Sheremetyevo’s Markus Klaushofer has flown a long way to attend Routes Americas; it’s a journey he says is vital to building relations through one-to-one meetings – particularly where the airport currently has no direct links to South America.

“The South American market is growing and has huge potential for us. Traffic from SVO to the region currently connects at other European hubs, while Havana has also been an important connecting point - but it’s not positioned as a transfer hub,” Klaushofer says.

Oil traffic between South America and Russia has been an important growth indicator and the current challenge is a lack of capacity in the Latin American market, he says. In the long-term, the airport is seeking major airlines to fly wide-bodies between the two regions.

“In the long-term, we are keen to serve Brazil, Venezeuala, Argentina and Chile.”

The Mexican market also presents big opportunities for tourism traffic to the region - and the relationship with Aeromexico, its Skyteam partner will be important to further growth in the future, he says.

Russian growth

The Russian economy appears to be resilient, Klaushofer explained, helped by the strengthening Russian Ruble and the gas and oil driven industries here.

“SVO experienced 12% year-on year traffic growth in December 2009 and we expect double-digit growth again this year - over 20% for January (2010),” he says. But Russia is still under-served in areas such as banking and financial services.”

Terminal developments

The Aeroflot-based terminal D opened for operations in December with domestic flights, with a phased opening taking place until the end of the summer schedule, says Klaushofer.

“Unlike the previous infrastructure we had, our new ‘one roof’ concept will significantly reduce MCT at the airport. Passengers can connect in under 50 minutes for both domestic and international flights,” he says. The airport’s integrated train link, which takes 30 minutes to reach the city of Moscow also plays a key role in further enhancing links to/from the airport.

SVO has signed an agreement with Russia’s low-cost airline, Avianova, which is expected to serve the airport’s domestic Terminal 1 during the Summer schedule.

“We see this as our low-cost terminal; the Avianova concept is excellent and we have ambitious growth here.”

Reporter: Louise Driscoll, Lima