Business news

MINSK, 12 January (BelTA) – Prime Minister of Belarus Andrei Kobyakov was made familiar with progress in building a new aircraft repair factory and the second runway in the Minsk National Airport on 12 January, BelTA has learned.

The aircraft repair factory will allow keeping aircraft repair business in Belarus in addition to exploring new business opportunities with good prospects of winning the market for the next few decades. Apart from that, the aircraft repair factory will expand the choice of services available to foreign air carriers in the Minsk National Airport.

The construction of the new aircraft repair factory will be finished in 2017. At present casual observers may see one strategic installation at the construction site — a hangar where 80% of the current factory’s production assets will be located. Once the hangar is operational, the entire manufacturing process can be relocated to the new premises. The contract with the general contractor OAO Grodnopromstroy provides for commissioning the hangar in May 2017.

Commenting for mass media on progress in building the second runway, Vasily Kornev, Deputy Director General in charge of Manufacturing of the enterprise Minsk National Airport, noted that the work proceeds on schedule even in winter. The new runway will be able to handle virtually all kinds of civilian aircraft in any weather. The existing runway has some restrictions for A380 aircraft: the exit taxi strip does not have enough radius for such aircraft. The new runway will have taxi strips for speedy exits, thus allowing any aircraft to land in the Minsk National Airport. New cutting-edge equipment will be installed including lighting equipment, radio technology, and navigation.

Andrei Kobyakov also visited the airport passenger terminal on 12 January. The Belarusian head of government was made familiar with border control procedures and procedures for clearing arriving and departing passengers. New devices for processing passports without assistance of border service officers were demonstrated. The devices are now being tested by helping clear passengers, who arrive in the Minsk National Airport.