Russia: New Moscow airport stalled by vanishing passengers

Moscow's new international airport is set to open next month with only a handful of airlines and faces a struggle to win passengers from rivals after Russia's economic crisis. The Zhukovsky airport terminal was inaugurated by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Monday, part of a 10b rouble (US$152m) project to redevelop a cargo airfield used for Cold War flight testing 40 km south-east of Moscow. The airport, a joint venture between state-run investor Rostec and Lithuania's Avia Solutions Group, will host routes from Moscow to cities in the former Soviet Union. It was conceived at a time when the Russian capital's three biggest airports were regularly operating at maximum capacity and was meant to tap rising airline traffic, then growing at 10% per year. But a steep economic downturn caused by lower oil prices and Western sanctions over Ukraine has hit the aviation market hard. The empty terminal, with 18 check-in desks, two cafes and a medium-sized duty free shop, has an operating capacity of 2m passengers a year. The airport's total capacity is set to rise to 12m passengers by 2020, Rostec said, but so far it has only reached operating agreements with four airlines<br/>