A new alliance of Russian airports was formally incorporated yesterday at the Routes CIS forum in Ekaterinburg, as four of the country’s six largest facilities by passenger traffic united to establish a single voice to lobby for better rights and advancements in the industry. The non-commercial entity which will be known in English as the Russian International Airport Association has been under discussion for around a year and as come to fruition thanks to enhanced co-operations between airport operators and the Government.
The grouping brings together three major airport groups – BaselAero, NovPort and Renova – and will initially comprise four major airports in the form of Sheremetyevo International and Vnukovo International in Moscow and the regional gateways of Ekaterinburg Koltsovo and Novosibirsk Tolmachevo. However, the alliance will support more airports across the country including among others Chelyabinsk, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara Kurumoch which are controlled by the partner airport groups.
Speaking exclusively to The HUB ahead of the a formal signing ceremony to mark the official incorporation of the new association, attended by the bosses of the four major partners, Evgeniy Chudnovskiy, Director General of Ekaterinburg Koltsovo Airport revealed the ambitions of the venture.
“We need to have an association that can constructively lobby for our rights and enable us to have a voice on developments within the aviation sector. As individual companies we are not heard but as a grouping we have a much more influential voice that we hope will be able to implement change in the Russian market,” he said.
“We all have had targets over the past few years and many of these have not been met by regional or national Government. We need to be more aggressive to change the industry for the better and this associaition will provide the platform for us to begin to send the right messages about how we can develop the industry to support the needs of everybody, from customers to the financers supporting investments in our industry,” he added.
The new association plans to become part of the Airports Council International (ACI); a global industry body that pursues airports interests in discussions with international organisations. Its most important relationship is with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), where international standards for air transport are debated and developed. ACI defends airports positions and develops standards and recommended practices in the areas of safety, security and environment initiatives. It also advances and protects airport interests in important policy changes on airport charges and regulation, strengthening the hand of airports in dealing with airlines.
According to Evgeniy Chudnovskiy a couple of initiatives are already under discussion within the association, one example relating to security at airports across Russia. At the moment legislation means that security scans and checks needs to be located as the last line of infrastructure in Russia and this has meant that its location beyond customs and border control has meant that two separate standalone facilities are required for domestic and international passengers.
“We are proposing a simple approach that is common sense, simply placing a single security area before customs and border control which can ensure all required legislation is adhered to, but at the same time standardising procedures and ultimately raising efficiency and reducing costs. “We have already approached the top 20 airports in Russia and they agree this new policy is the way forward and the association will now seek to discuss this with state officials,” said Evgeniy Chudnovskiy.
There is scope for tremendous growth within the association and doors will be open to all local members. “We know the Russian market and that is a good place for us to concentrate,” said Evgeniy Chudnovskiy, ruling out extending its membership beyond national borders into the CIS. “Not at this stage,” he said. “But, I am not ruling this out at a later date.”
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