Co-owners of Vnukovo Airport could invest in the construction of a second runway at Domodedovo Airport in return for land at Domodedovo for the construction of a new passenger terminal and fueling facility, Kommersant reported Friday.
The total cost of the new runway is estimated at nearly 27 billion rubles ($896 million).
Vnukovo-Invest, which owns 25 percent of Vnukovo Airport, has informed the Transportation Ministry in a letter that it is ready to "begin to carry out the construction immediately … based on the conclusion of a concession agreement."
The federal target program Development of the Russian Transportation System allocated 15 billion rubles for the construction of a runway at Domodedovo, with the intention of seeking private investment to make up the difference.
Vnukovo-Invest told the Transportation Ministry that "the investment cannot be recouped" without the construction of new facilities on an adjacent plot of land. That would practically amount to an alternative operator at the airport with its own separate infrastructure.
The owners of Domodedovo hold 14,000 hectares of land, and the airport also incorporates federal land, Kommersant said.
The government and the operators of the airport have been in a protracted legal dispute over the land airport facilities are located on. Those facilities belong to the government and are rented by their operators.
The identity of the current owners of Domodedovo is not publicly known. In anticipation of an initial public offering for the airport last summer, Dmitry Kamenshchik was identified as the airport's owner.
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