OREANDA-NEWS. November 23, 2012. Moscow Domodedovo Airport, boasting Russia’s most extensive route network, has passed IATA audit certifying the compliance of its operations with the international ISAGO* standard.

According to the IATA regulations, the detailed audit of the ground operations is carried out by an airline company included in the ISAGO auditors’ pool established by IATA. The biggest Russian airport in terms of passenger traffic was audited by the highly skilled professionals of the national air carrier, Aeroflot – Russian Airlines Open Joint-Stock Company, which is a member of the IATA pool. So far, Domodedovo has been the only national airport certified by IATA in all areas of ground service operations.

According to the IATA rules, the air hub willing to obtain the ISAGO certificate, is free to choose the parts of the standard to be audited. Adopting a consistent approach to the ground operations safety, Domodedovo has chosen the full comprehensive assessment of the Handling according to all seven parts of the ISAGO standard: organization and management, aircraft ground movement, aircraft handling and loading, passenger handling, baggage handling, cargo and mail handling and load control. In two of the seven parameters – passenger handling and baggage handling – Domodedovo earned the highest rate of the experts.

ISAGO certificate confirms the important competitive advantage of Domodedovo Airport serving 82** airline companies from all over the world, i.e. provision of handling services according to the single, recognized worldwide standard.

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).

* IATA Safety Audit for Ground Operation Program

** Data as of October 2012