11,877 flights departed from Koltsovo airport in Yekaterinburg; this exceeds the figures for 2004 by 0.5%. 9,161 flights (an increase of 3.8% compared to 2004) were bound for various Russian cities, 801 flights (a decrease of 17.8%) left for the cities of NIS, and 1,915 (a 5.4% decrease) were long-distance international ones. According to Koltsovo spokesperson, the airport served over 1.5 million clients (1,566 792 people), which means a slight increase of 0.8% compared to 2004.

Koltsovo airport also transferred 11,544 900 tons of goods and mail, which signifies a 44.6% decrease compared to 2004. This is believed to be the result of high customs duties imposed on imported goods. (Thus, the airport managed 20,457 400 tons in 2004, which was 13.3% more goods and mail than in 2003.)

‘The company’s performance data for 2005 indicate that we have greatly improved in terms of reconstruction but that the number of passengers has hardly increased. Given last year’s economic vicissitudes, this might be seen as a welcome sign of stability, but we cannot afford to simply rest on our laurels. That is why we are going to consider the company’s willingness to perform regional flights when setting our partnership priorities in what concerns Russian carriers,’ explained Koltsovo Airport JSC General Director Mikhail Maksimov.

Koltsovo Airport JSC is also planning to start a major runway reconstruction (with the financial support of the federal budget) and renovate Soviet-time buildings. The current budget scheme for the project that started in 2004 comes to around 10 billion RUR.