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Aeroexpress interested in carrying passengers from Pulkovo Airport to St. Pete downtown

Availability of an appropriate infrastructure is the main condition for the railway carrier of passengers to Moscow airports to start operations in St. Petersburg

MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/. Aeroexpress takes interest in carrying passengers from Pulkovo Airport to the downtown of St. Petersburg, Executive Director of the railway carrier of passengers to Moscow airports Alexei Sorokin told TASS in an interview on Friday.

"We are interested in the intermodal transportation market. Pulkovo [Airport] serviced 13.5 mln passengers last year — this is just slightly less than in Vnukovo [one of Moscow airports — TASS] and that is why this route is of interest for us," Sorokin said.

Availability of an appropriate infrastructure is the main condition for Aeroexpress to start operations in St. Petersburg. "As soon as the decision to develop infrastructure is made, we will be ready to continue the discussion on our participation in the project with the region," he added.

Aeroexpress does not plan to raise ticket prices in 2016

According to Sorokin, Aeroexpress does not plan to raise ticket prices this year.

"We do not see opportunities to hike prices with the minimal price of 420 rubles ($6.1) when purchasing tickets via electronic sales channels. We are reluctant in taking such measures, considering the decline of population’s income. Therefore we will work on the performance improvement and will try to maintain ticket prices for passengers at the existing level," Sorokin said.

The business class trips remain in demand, the Executive Director said. "The percentage of business class passengers remained the same at 2015 year-end - 3% of our total passenger traffic," Sorokin added.

Aeroexpress discusses launch of trains to Ramenskoe Airport

Aeroexpress is discussing an opportunity for launching trains to Ramenskoe Airport in Moscow Region, Sorokin went on to say.

"We discussed the opportunity of our participation in the project with colleagues from Ramenskoe Airport but we as a carrier do not deal with development of infrastructure. No decision has been made so far on construction of railway approaches to this airport and no financing sources exist. It will be possible to discuss involvement in this project after construction of relevant infrastructure starts," Sorokin said.

Opening of the fourth airport in Moscow Region was scheduled on March 15 but its commissioning has been postponed by an indefinite term.

At the same time, Aeroexpress almost doubles its investment program to 1.8 bln rubles ($26.3 mln) in 2016, Sorokin said. The investment program will comprise corporate and borrowed funds, he added, without detailing the ratio of sources.