Business news

MINSK, 10 February (BelTA) – The number of passengers travelling through Belarusian regional airports in 2014 was estimated at 85,000 people, up by 44% compared by the year before, BelTA learned from the Aviation Department of the Transport and Communications Ministry.

“Last year a lot of efforts were invested in improving infrastructure and building the capacity of regional airports, keeping them in compliance with the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and operational safety standards,” the Aviation Department informed. They noted that the technical upgrade and renewal of fixed assets of aviation companies are among the priorities for 2015.

The Aviation Department added that the national air carrier Belavia operated regular flights from Brest, Grodno and Gomel to Kaliningrad in the summer period. In this period charter flights were available to seaside resorts of Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece. Since October 2014 the company has been operating charter flights from Brest and Gomel to Egypt.

In June 2014 regular domestic flights Minsk-Gomel-Kaliningrad-Gomel-Minsk were launched. At a recent press conference Belavia’s Director General Anatoly Gusarov noted: “We will certainly operate flights between Minsk and Gomel. Maybe, not in this format, but we will fly from oblast capitals – Gomel, Brest and Grodno – to Kaliningrad. No decision has been made yet, but we are considering a possibility to fly from Gomel to Moscow using the Minsk-Gomel-Kaliningrad route”.

All in all, Belarusian airports handled 2.678 million passengers in 2014, up by 19.5% compared to 2013.