OREANDA-NEWS. September 29, 2010. September saw the test-mode launch of the new Terminal A's Departure Concourse at Vnukovo intl. The outbound flight handled was a charter to Perm, operated by Messrs. UTair to deliver a delegation to the Perm Economic Forum.

Somewhat earlier, on July 6, 2010, the incremental service entry of Vnukovo International's brand-new passenger Terminal A commenced. A UTair flight inbound from Anapa brought the first arrivals to the new facility's arrivals area in the domestic section . Another inbound flight from Minsk, Belarus, operated by Atlant-Soyuz, the Government of Moscow airline, and carrying a delegation of the same, was handled later the same day.

The Terminal will initially - in test mode - handle a few flights a day, and the current expectation is that by end-July the facility will start welcoming passengers traveling on outbound flights.

Once all the formalities are taken care of concerning the operational presence of the Federal Boundary and Customs Services, the Terminal's International Sector will welcome its first air travelers, thus completing the service entry of Terminal A's Launch Stage One.

The implementation of the Terminal A project with the total floor space offering of 250 thousand square meters commenced in February, 2006, as part of the vast Vnukovo Airport Master Plan. The total floor space of Launch Stage One entering service today, comprises 174 thousand square meters, enabling the passenger throughput capacity of 7 million a year.

Total cost of  turn-key construction of the new passenger Terminal's Launch Stage One is RUB39 billion. A further RUB2 billion investment is slated for the Facility's Stage Two completion.

As far as its structural and engineering features are concerned, the Terminal is quite without par in the nation and is currently Russia's technologically foremost facility of it's kind. The air terminal concept won the gold medal nomination at Brussels Eureka 2006.

The new Terminal has five main levels including an underground one located at 8,25 meters below ground level and made flush with the Airport's underground train station, from which the Aeroexpress high-speed trains have been shuttling air travelers to the Airport's Terminal at Kievsky Train Station in midtown Moscow and back since the August of 2005.

A significant part of the new Terminal has been allocated as a boarding pier complete with 25 contact gates, with a total of 13 of those expected to come on line with the operational launch of Stage One.

During the project's R&D phase the key emphasis had been on providing the maximum degree of comfort and convenience for the would-be air travelers throughout their dwell time in the Terminal, as well as on the optimization of all the passenger handling processes and services. A multitude of passageways, elevators, escalators, moving walkways, and controlled entrances into the Terminal has been provided on and between each of the facility's levels. Eventually, and taking into account the subsequent launch of Stage Two, a total of 76 elevators, 60 escalators, 38 moving sidewalks, as well as 152 check-in desks, 60 immigration and 40 airport security desks will be made available, with many of them tailored to the needs of limited-mobility passengers.

Alongside the Terminal's facade and with a view to providing convenient roadway access to it, a raised two-level highway has been erected which will ensure complete townside segregation of the flows of arriving and departing passengers. The 2,5 kilometer-long horseshoe-shaped traffic interchange seamlessly connects the airport forecourt with the Kievskoye and Borovskoye Highways.

The new Terminal will open up a plethora of new exciting opportunities for the Airport and will boost its total passenger capacity to 18-20 million annually.