First flights from Nizhniy Novgorod to Kirov, Penza, Samara, Ufa and Kazan have been performed today, on April 1, under the program for regional traffic development in the Volga Federal District. The first passenger flight was seen off by the Aide to the President of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Commission for the Development of General Aviation Jury Trutnev, Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Volga Federal District Mikhail Babich, MANN Executive Director Alexander Sinelnikov and chief executives of the airlines-operators of the project.
«The main advantage of the project is the increase in business activity and mobility of our fellow citizens, after all, both in human life and in the economy time is the main and most expensive resource,» - noted at the press conference on the occasion of launching the program Jury Trutnev. «The faster the journey from one city to another inside the country (and the total time savings of passengers in transit compared to travel by land transport is estimated at 1.5 million hours per year), the higher the rate of economic growth.»
The program for regional traffic development is designed for six months - from April 1 to November 1, and the flights will be launched in stages. Today services to five destinations have been introduced, in June one more flight to Samara will be added (total frequency of flights to Samara will equal 3 flights per day), on September 1, you can fly from Nizhny Novgorod to Izhevsk, Ulyanovsk, Saratov, Perm and Nizhnekamsk. Passengers will pay only 50% of the cost of the air ticket, the remaining 50% will be compensated by carriers from the federal and regional subsidies. The difference of this project from the common flights within the district is that the special rate tickets for flights between the subjects of the VFD will be available to all categories of citizens of the Russian Federation, without age and social status limits.
«In the preparation stage of the project we managed to agree on the federal and regional subsidies for tickets to the passengers, administrative barriers were removed, VFD regions provided substantial support to launching of new flights between the subjects of the district,» - noted the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Volga Federal District Mikhail Babich. «We believe that this model of air travel subsidizing is successful, the decision on implementation of the proposed model in all federal districts of the Russian Federation in 2014 will be taken based on the results of the project in the first half of 2013.»
You remember that Aircompany Tatarstan was chosen for implementation of the pilot project on organization of air traffic in the VFD. Aircompany Tatarstan has formed a pool of carriers - UTair, ZAO Aviamenedzhment Group FSUE Airport Orenburg, AK BARS AERO - who will also be able to carry out regional flights on aircraft with small seating capacity. Thus, three L410 planes have already been purchased by FSUE Airport Orenburg, 15 Cessna aircraft will be held by Aircompany Tatarstan - 3 already acquired in March, 3 to be gained in May and 9 aircraft will join the fleet in September, 6 Pilatus aircraft have already been provided to support the project by ZAO Aviamenedzhment Group.
«To all airlines providing regional air service the airport has granted discounts on ground handling at a rate of 60% - this is our contribution to the project, because we are interested in launching of new routes and in the growth of passenger traffic,» - emphasized MANN Executive Director Alexander Sinelnikov. «According to our estimates, the project will allow to increase passenger traffic by 10-15%.»