News 
June 24th, AEX.RU – On June 24th the Group of Companies Aerofuels and the Kurgan Region authorities signed an agreement on construction of the state border entry point in the airport of Kurgan. The documents were signed by Alexey Kokorin, temporarily in charge governor of the region, and Vladimir Spiridonov, Aerofuels Group General Director.
It should be recalled that yesterday at the Kurgan Region authorities meeting an agreement on arrangement of the international entry point in the region was agreed upon with Aerofuels Group Ltd. Igor Ksenofontov, the Kurgan Region deputy governor in investments, international economic activity and inter-regional relations, informed in the course of the meeting that the agreement dealt with cooperation within the frameworks of the Russian Federation state border crossing checkpoint launching in the airport of the city of Kurgan.
«It is a significant event for the Kurgan Region today. We are signing the agreement on cooperation within the frameworks of the public - private partnership in the border crossing checkpoint arrangement. This means that in the future we will get the status of the international airport, which will significantly expand traffic ranges not only of our city but the region as well. Besides, that will improve investment attractiveness of our region for foreign investors», said Alexey Kokorin during a signing ceremony. Besides, as he pointed out, to get the status of the international airport means that the Kurgan tourists, when travelling abroad, will not have to get to some nearest international airports (Ekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk) any more. Investments in the border entry point will initially make about 100 mln rubles.
«We understand perfectly well that the international airport status is a great achievement in the region economic life, we are interested in it as it gives us a possibility to expand freight service within the frameworks of a logistic centre construction in the Kurgan Region. Our region is greatly concerned in a swift implementation of this project», summed up Mr Kokorin.
«Our company became the airport of Kurgan stock-holder several years ago. We have gone through a long way and emerged from bankruptcy. This agreement gives rise to a new milestone in cooperation and means growth of the status from the regional to international», stated Vladimir Spiridonov in his turn. «The growth of status up to the international one will promote the airport development, will decrease air-tickets price, increase profitability, create more jobs and will encourage investments not only into the airport directly, but into other relevant branches. Besides, this status will make it possible to attract tourist flow from the neighboring regions, which will increase work efficiency and the region attractiveness. That is a great step not only for the airport but for all of us and the whole branch», he added.
As Mr Spiridonov said, it would take from one to one and a half year to get the status, which can be considered a minimal timeframe. «Just the work to get this status means serious contacts with different state bodies, which will be held by the regional authorities. Generally speaking, it is a unique work as for the last five years only four airports have managed to be granted the international status. This work deals not only with the state bodies but with investments as well. Our task is to carry out investment activities and to have the airport services compliant with all necessary standards to pass certification», he added.
As Vladimir Spiridonov noted, several different options of the international entry point arrangement are being under consideration. The first option offers to place the international point in the active terminal which will be significantly reconstructed. The second option deals with an additional building integrated to the airport terminal to serve as the international terminal. In any case, first of all the economic expert analysis will be performed to determine reasonability of this or that option. The expert examination is going to start right the next day.
As Dmitry Kovalenko, Kurgan airport General Director, said, the international state border crossing checkpoint flow will make up to 150 passengers per hour.
As for particular airlines, Vladimir Spiridonov noted that negotiations with NordWind and Rossiya airlines had been already carried out and they had expressed their concern. Generally, that deals with tourist destinations (Turkey, Egypt, Bulgaria). Besides, cooperation with low-cost foreign airlines, Wizz Air, in particular, is being developed to arrange flights from Western Europe to Kurgan.
Besides, as for domestic flights, Alexey Kokorin, temporarily in charge governor of the region, informed that on July 02nd – 03rd the region authorities would carry out negotiations and sign an agreement on social and economic cooperation with the Crimea administration. The Kurgan Region is going to launch a route to the Crimea starting from the beginning of 2015. On the 04th of July it is planned to sign the similar agreement with Bashkortostan.
