Russia's Civil Aviation Will Continue To Expand In 2002

Russia's civil aviation "will continue to expand" in 2002, Alexander Neradko, Russia's Deputy Transport Minister and head of the State Civil Aviation Service, told journalists. In 2001, he said, civil aviation will report a 15 per cent rise in its performance compared with 2000, "although final results of the last year are not yet in". Considering a robust growth in passengers and cargo traffic on domestic and international lines, Neradko believes Russia's civil aviation will meet its 80th birth anniversary with good results. The deputy minister said the state is supporting civil aviation. For the first time in the past 10 years, he said, Russian airliners are able to purchase Russian-made passenger jets under leasing arrangements. Dalavia, for example, has received two new Tu-214 airliners from the Kazan factory. Two more will be delivered to Rossia. Other air carriers have sent in requests for Tu-214s, regional liners An-38 and amphibian planes Be-200. As Neradko said, now that flights from the US and Canada to South East Asia over northern Russia have been regulated Russian air companies have extra money to modernise their infrastructure. Work has already started on a number of peripheral airfields and recently a landing strip was inaugurated in Kemerovo, Siberia. Moscow airports are being modernised.