OREANDA-NEWS. June 15, 2010. The opening ceremony for the airport in Gelendzhik, one of Basel Aero's cluster of airports in the Krasnodar territory held on June 5, 2010.

This is the first civilian airport that Russia has built in 25 years. The new airport is able to accept its first flights from major Russian cities thanks to the success of the private public partnership that made the project possible. The new airport is adjacent to the old one, which was closed in 2004.

The new airport is of immense importance to Gelendzhik as one of Russia's major Black Sea resorts. Experts forecast the resumption of flights will boost tourism to the Gelendzhik coastal area by 20%.

The airport has already started accepting flights by leading airlines like Aeroflot, Rossiya, Urals Airlines, UTair, Gazpromavia, Avianova and Atlant-Soyuz. It plans 57 flights per week or seven or eight per day during the summer season. It is already possible to fly to Gelendzhik from Moscow, St Petersburg and Novosibirsk and efforts are under way to secure new key routes to cities like Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk, Tyumen and Yekaterinburg.

Basel Aero, the airport operator, plans to bring new carriers in, to expand the route network and introduce additional services for the airport's passengers and partners.

Basel Aero, part of the Basic Element Group's Aviation Sector, operates airports in Krasnodar, Sochi, Gelendzhik and Anapa. Basel Aero's airports handle just under 9% of all Russia's air passengers. The Group's airports handled 3.5 million passengers in 2009.

The Gelendzhik airport's runway is 3,100 meters long and is capable of accepting Tak-42, Tu-134, Tu-154, Boeing-737, Boeing-757-200, A-319, A-320 and lighter aircraft. The terminal is capable of handling 140 passengers per hour.