St Petersburg-Pulkovo Airport commences operating new terminal 1 in test mode
Russia's St Petersburg-Pulkovo Airport stated (04-Dec-2013) it commenced operating its new terminal 1 in test mode, receiving its first passengers on 04-Dec-2013. All services from Pulkovo 1 and Pulkovo 2 will be gradually transferred to the new EUR700 million Pulkovo Terminal by the end of Jan-2014. The services of Rossiya to Dussedorf, Munich, and Frankfurt were the first to be transferred to the new terminal. The first phase of the project has taken two and half years to construct. When the project is fully completed in 2016 it will increase capacity at the airport from 8.4 million to 17 million passengers p/a. Once open, the 110,000sqm terminal will have 110 border control booths, 88 check-in desks, seven baggage belts and 28 gates. The terminal is equipped with jetways, 45 elevators, and 17 escalators. Restaurants, cafes, bars, duty free and numerous shops take over 15,400sqm of the new terminal. On the landside, a four-star Park Inn Hotel by Radisson (215 rooms), a business centre, a multilevel parking with 560 spaces, and a parking lot with more than 2300 spaces were built. During phase 1 of the Pulkovo Airport development, aprons were renovated, and their total area increased from 250,000sqm to 450,000sqm. A light flight support building, a ground handling base, operational services buildings, two emergency and rescue stations, an energy centre and other aerodrome infrastructure facilities were constructed. The airport has been designed by Grimshaw Architects and SFMM are the executive architect, with construction being completed by ICA Construction. Northern Capital Gateway director general Sergey Emdin commented: "The opening of the new state of the art terminal will provide for high quality services and airport security. We are now close to the incarnation of plans for Pulkovo airport to become a major hub in the Baltic region. This will not only provide for an expansion of the territory of flights and stimulate the future growth of Saint Petersburg's tourism market, but will also increase the economic potential of the entire north west region. [more - original PR] [more - original PR - Russian] [more - original PR - Russian - II]