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Yamal authorities announce competition for Arctic airport modernization

The airport’s reconstruction requires about $100 million

TASS, July 26. Authorities of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District announced a competition for a concession agreement on modernization of the airport in Novy Urengoi - the region’s biggest city. The reconstruction is due within next 3.5 years, press service of the region’s governor said on Wednesday.

"According to the competition’s terms, a private investor will build a new airport building, modernize the runway, offer telescopic passenger boarding bridges and will offer service at international level," the press service said. "The obligatory condition for the future investor is to make sure the air hub continues working during the entire term of reconstruction."

"The reconstruction’s term is 3.5 years," the press service continued. "The investor will rent all the facilities for 30 years, and afterwards they all again become property of the District."

TASS reported earlier the airport’s reconstruction would require about six billion rubles ($100 million). After the first stage of modernization is completed, the airport will serve up to 800 people an hour (against 150-200 now), and the runway will be suitable for all types of mid-haul planes.

"We have studied various variants of modernization and the conclusion is it will be a public-private partnership under a concession agreement - this is an optimal variant here," Deputy Governor Dmitry Artyukhov said. "Thus, the District keeps control over the strategically important facility and the immediate burden on the budget is not that big."

"A few big investors, having experience in managing airports, have shown interest in the competition," the official added.

The agreement also contains a provision, which plans the second stage of reconstruction, once the airport begins serving 1.45 million passengers a year.

"At that stage, it would be organization of an international terminal and reconstruction of the airport’s complex to serve 1,200 passengers an hour, as well as extending the runway to three kilometers to have a wide geography of flights," the press service said.

As yet, the airport in Novy Urengoi serves flights to more than 40 destinations. The air hub served about 900,000 passengers in 2016.