Almaty airport to be expanded by November 2012

Almaty airport will be expanded by 3 thousand square meters by November 2012. The near-by arrivals terminal will be renovated and put into operation, Vice-President for Operations of Almaty International Airport Aleksander Gordeyev told Tengrinews.kz. According to him, the new terminal will be connected to the main building and this will increase the airport’s capacity from 1,300 to 1,600 passengers per hour. He also explained that the majority of the international flights’ arrivals fall on nights and early mornings because of the time difference with other countries. “Instead of the capacity the terminal has now (1,300 passengers per hour), we will have 1,500 passengers per hour. The problem appears with the lack of space. In line with the international standards, the airport has to have 40 square meters per each passenger. Unfortunately, this terminal is not made large enough,” Gordeyev said and pointed out that more new areas will solve this problem in the nearest 2-3 years. “After refurbishing terminal, we want to keep it for domestic flights. This way we will double the capacity for the international flights. It will be a very good terminal, very higy-tech. We will use modern materials,” Gordeyev said. By Daniyar Bozov