SOCHI, March 19. /ITAR-TASS/. The Sochi International Airport served over 113,000 passengers, including over 1,500 people with limited mobility, during the 2014 Paralympic Games held between March 7 and 16 in Russia’s resort city of Sochi, airport’s operating company Basel Aero said on Wednesday.
“Within the period between March 1 and 18, a total of 55,543 passengers arrived in Sochi and an overall of 57,792 departed from the capital of the 2014 Games,” the press service of Basel Aero, which is a part of Russia’s industrial diversified group Basic Element, said.
“The figures include over 102,000 people using domestic flights and over 10,000 passengers from the international flights, while 1,422 aircraft took off and landed during this period of time,” the service added.
Leonid Sergeyev, the director general of Basel Aero, said an enormous assistance to the Sochi Airport was provided on behalf of the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency, the 2014 Sochi Organizing Committee and the Moscow Vnukovo Airport.
“Together we managed to prove that Russia is capable of holding global-scale events at the highest level, complying with all security norms and providing qualitative and timely services of any kind,” Sergeyev said. “According to the prevailing number of participants and guests of the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Sochi coped with its set task.”
He spoke in particular about the assistance of the International Vnukovo Airport, which was the first to send its staff to beef up the personnel at the Sochi Airport and to provide additional straining of the Sochi staff.
The airport began preparing to serve people with limited mobility long before the opening of the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games and began started the implementation of its program “Accessible Environment” since 2011.
The facility was equipped with tactile footpaths, which were part of the navigation package for the blind, wheelchair ramps, special parking lots and accessible toilets.
Elevators for people with reduced mobility have audible warnings as the doors open or close and also feature Braille letters for visually impaired people.
Registration terminals were equipped with 80-centimeters (2.6-feet) stands for wheelchair-bound passengers. The airport also has areas particularly designated for hearing-impaired people.
Four ambulifts with a capacity of five people each helped the passengers with restricted mobility to either board or leave the aircraft.