‘Koltsovo Airport of Yekaterinburg serviced 2,529,395 passengers last year, with the annual net profit preliminarily estimated at 587million RUR (compared with 747 million RUR in 2007). The revenues are expected to reach 6.5 billion RUR (in comparison with 5.3 billion RUR in 2007). This increase in revenues can be explained by the greater jet fuel prices,’ Koltsovo Airport’s General Director Kirill Shubin announced in the course of a press conference in Yekaterinburg.

‘The amount of money airlines owe us nearly doubled over 2008; remarkably, the lion’s share of these debts was made before September 1, 2008. All in all, the non-recoverable sums amounted to 62 million RUR last year,’ Shubin added.

‘In 2009, we expect both our profits and our revenues to go down. This is highly likely to happen because of smaller passenger turnovers and lower jet fuel prices,’ he explained.