|
Five years ago to the day Vnukovo's new International Terminal B opened for business. The grand opening took place on April 17, 2004 with Yuri Luzhkov, the Mayor of the City of Moscow and Igor Levitin, the RF Minister of Transport chairing the ceremony.
The Terminal has since welcomed around 9 million air passengers who traveled on the 70 thousand-plus flights bringing with them approximately 120 thousand tons of baggage, all handled smoothly and with finesse at the Airport's flagship facility.
At the time of its launch The Terminal was one of the most advanced and largest facilities of its type in existence throughout Russia. The facility's inauguration proved to be a milestone for the Nation's civil aviation and a whole new page in Vnukovo International's further growth and development. The construction had been been carried out as part of the Airport Master Plan to 2015, launched by the Moscow City Government in 2003.
The new international facility was built from the ground up and its launch was an incremental two-stage affair. April 2004 saw the inauguration of the facility's first stage, the main concourse section of the Terminal, delivering 17,400 square meters of floor space, and in December of the same year, a boarding pier with a total of five contact gates became operational, adding a further 6,800 meters of floor space.
The Terminal's total floor space offering stands at 25 thousand square meters and enables an hourly throughput capacity of 1200 pax., adding up to approximately four million air travelers a year. One of the many innovations the Terminal incorporates is the three-level passenger handling arrangement and pax. flow separation throughout. Level One is where general-access waiting areas, customs checkpoints, passenger & baggage check-in and claim are located, along with a range of concessions and discretional & mandatory services. The immigration and passport control services for the arriving passengers can be found on Level Two, whereas the respective services for all international departures are located on Level Three, further complemented by an array of duty-free shopping and catering outlets, as well as by a stylish and comfortable First & Business Class Lounge.
A passenger's every need has been anticipated to make their dwell time here as problem-free and enjoyable as possible, with a choice of cafes, restaurants, shopping outlets, a hair-stylist's, a cell communications sales outlet, a number of ATMs, a Sberbank brach office, nappy-changing rooms for those traveling with infants, as well as a first & business-class passenger lounge always within easy and affordable reach of one and all.
In a manner of speaking, the Terminal has by now become one of Moscow's calling cards, playing a part as it did in a number of significant public events both locally and on the inter/national scale. To name but a few would include the welcome it extended in 2005 to the arriving participants of the festivities to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The year 2008 saw the convergence on and via Vnukovo International of numerous soccer fans coming to Moscow to catch the UEFA Cup Finals match. Furthermore and for several years in succession now, Vnukovo has been hosting the welcoming and spreading of the Holy Fire brought in from Jerusalem every year at Easter, and there is every intention to continue the venerable tradition this year as well.
Currently the construction of the new passenger terminal A is in full swing at Vnukovo International by way of one of the next stages as per the Airport Master Plan. The all-new facility will add a total of 250 thousand square meters of floor space and its entry into service will boost the Airport's total passenger throughput capacity to 20 million a year by 2015, while allowing to maintain world-class standards of air travel service and security. Even then the existing international facility B shall lose none of its present-day functional significance and will continue as an integral part of the Airport's day-to-day operations.
Vnukovo Airport Press Service
www.vnukovo.ru
Translated into English by
the Website Editorial Office staff
JSC Vnukovo Handling
e-mail: mm@vnukovo.ru
| 
