OREANDA-NEWS. October 17, 2012. On the territory of Moscow Domodedovo Airport and neighboring settlements, special tactical training exercises with participation of Russian FSB, Ministry of Defense of Russia, Emercom Russia, and Russian Interior Ministry, the Federal Security Service of Russia, the FSIN of Russia and the airport security service were carried out. During training exercises, the cooperation of all services for the early detection, prevention and suppression of the possible acts of unlawful interference in the transport infrastructure facilities was tested.

In conditions, close to the real, the security agencies’ employees together with the airport security service managed to disarm and detain alleged members of a terrorist sabotage team who tried to get access to the passenger terminal hall as well as to carry out the armed breakthrough of the apron.

- The training exercises have demonstrated not only well coordinated work of all services, but also their high efficiency, said Sergey Starostin, Head of the Linear Department of the Interior for the Transport Sector.

- The provision of aviation security has always been and still is one of our priorities, said Igor Borisov, Director of Moscow Domodedovo Airport. The training exercises have confirmed the opinion of the state supervising bodies which regularly check Domodedovo: security provision measures at the airport meet the requirements for certification for aviation security conformity.

The largest air harbor of Russia and the Eastern Europe in terms of passenger traffic is constantly being checked not only by state supervising bodies of the Russian Federation but also by security services of other countries. Regular events on the airport vulnerability assessment with the participation of the experts of international level are carried out on average about 3–4 times a month.

Over the last 10 years, the airport has spent over USD 30 million on provision of transport security, USD 25 million of them – to purchase the equipment. Over the last fifteen years, the airport has increased the number of the aviation security service employees, has expanded the airport dog service department. In order to check absolutely all visitors of the passenger terminal (the procedure was introduced in late January last year), the additional inspection equipment and all necessary materials for its uninterrupted steady work were bought.

In 2012, Domodedovo has implemented several projects aimed to rainforce the airport perimeter fence, modernization of the HD digital video surveillance system and the apron access system.

Moscow Domodedovo Airport is the largest airport of Russia in terms of passenger traffic. In 2011, total passenger traffic of the airport amounted to 25,701,610 people which let Domodedovo to become the first Russian airport to join the category of the largest airports in Europe due to Airports Council International (ACI) classification. Moscow Domodedovo Airport is the base airport in Russia for member airlines of two largest global airline alliances – oneworld and Star Alliance. For the third year in a row, Moscow Domodedovo Airport was on top of the list of the best airports in Eastern Europe in terms of the service quality, according to the annual survey by the independent research company Skytrax Research (UK).