OREANDA-NEWS. NOVOSIBIRSK International Airport received and handled mail from the People’s Republic of China to the Siberian and Far Eastern addressees for the first time ever.

Parcels and letters from China were delivered to NOVOSIBIRSK International Airport on a regular Beijing – Novosibirsk flight by S7 Airlines. Following transit customs processing at the airport, international mail was forwarded to Novosibirsk international postal exchange office.

At the end of March, Russian Post reached an agreement with China Post concerning partial redirection of incoming mail directly to Novosibirsk (with zip-sorting to the Far Eastern and Siberian Federal Districts) in order to optimize workload of the Moscow Air Hub as well as to reduce delivery time to addressees.

Quoting the General Director of Airport Tolmachevo JSC Evgeniy Yankilevich as saying, “the decision to choose NOVOSIBIRSK International Airport as a postal logistics center able to cover requirements of the Siberian region was determined by availability of necessary infrastructure as well as its favorable geographical location. It is the largest international airport beyond the Urals positioned on many air transit routes connecting South-East Asia and China with Europe and North America.”

Residents of the Siberian and Far Eastern Federal Districts will be able to receive mail directly, bypassing postal exchange in Moscow for the first time ever. Mainly caused by logistics features of China Post, earlier mail from China was “to cycle” being initially dispatched for registration to Moscow and only afterwards delivered to Siberia and Far East. Partial release of loads at the Moscow Air Hub, which handles 85% of all international mail to the Russian addressees, will allow to reduce delivery time.

“Mail logistics optimization is one of the priorities for the Federal Postal Operator. No doubt, full capacity of Novosibirsk International postal exchange office will enable to deliver mail to the clients of Siberia and Far East much faster,” noted the Director of the Novosibirsk Russian Post branch office Sergey Skrylov.

NOVOSIBIRSK International Airport is the largest transit air hub in the Asian part of Russia. The airport has two runways, provides handling services of regular cargo flights of both Russian and foreign airlines such as AirBridgeCargo, Aeroflot, Volga-Dnepr, Cargolux, Air Cargo Germany, Air China Cargo, Yangtze River Express and others. Capacity of the freight complex Tolmachevo Cargo makes up 50,000 tons per year.In 2013 it expects to handle over 35,000 tons of cargo and mail (+25%). The airport has been nominated for World Routes Awards in the category “The Best Airport of CIS 2012”.

Federal State Unitary Enterprise Russian Post was founded by Government on September 5, 2002. Up-to-date the company comprises 86 branch offices and about 42,000 postal centers providing mail services over the whole territory of Russia including all cities and rural settlements. The company has one of the largest postal staff employing about 350,000 people. In 2012 Russian Post received, handled and delivered over 1.63 billion letters, 53 million parcels and over 100 million money transfers.