More in ATW's Airports Today

Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport has fully opened its $1.4 billion Terminal A. The completed terminal, which can handle 30 million passengers per year, has three jet bridges for the Boeing 747 and one for the Airbus A380. Transaero CEO Olga Pleshakova said the carrier will transfer its 747 flights to New York and Miami to Vnukovo from Moscow Domodedovo Airport....More

The opening of Berlin Brandenburg Airport could be postponed again, according to several German media reports, after fire safety experts found more problems with the facility’s security system last month. The airport was originally scheduled to open in June, a date that was postponed to August, and then to March 2013, due to technical issues concerning fire protection installations. In September, it confirmed the new opening date would be Oct. 27, 2013....More

London Stansted Airport is seeking financial aid from the UK government to improve its much-criticised rail link from London. Stansted lies approximately 30 miles northeast of the capital but the current Stansted Express rail service, although frequent and re-equipped just a year ago with modern rolling stock, takes between 45 minutes and an hour to traverse what is essentially a branch line. Journey times have actually increased in recent years due to ageing infrastructure, such as signalling equipment, which is becoming unreliable....More

The Maldives government has terminated a $511 million contract awarded to Bangalore-based GMR Group in 2010 for the upgrade, expansion and operation of Male International Airport. The government said the agreement was “legally invalid,” a decision GMR is disputing....More

London Heathrow Airport has lost its position as Europe’s primary hub airport due to its runway capacity shortage, according to former IATA CEO Giovanni Bisignani. Speaking at the Future of Air Transport Conference in London, Bisignani said that Heathrow now connects to fewer destinations than it did 20 years ago as well as to fewer destinations than its competitors—Frankfurt, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schiphol....More

Reykjavik Keflavik International Airport (KEF) said it recorded a 3.2% higher-than-expected number of passengers for the first half of 2012. Arriving passengers increased 14.4% compared to the first half of 2011 and departures increased 12.2%....More

Chinese sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp. (CIC) has purchased a 10% stake in Heathrow Airport Holdings (formerly BAA) through its wholly owned subsidiary Stable Investment Corp. Stable bought a 5.72% stake of FGP Topco, the holding company that owns Heathrow Airport Holdings, from the company’s largest shareholder Ferrovial for £257.4 million ($414.4 million). As part of the same transaction and at the same share price, Stable purchased a further 4.28% from other FGP Topco shareholders for £192.6 million....More

A combination of active reduction measures and a milder winter saw Swedish airport owner-operator Swedavia attained carbon-neutral status in 2011. The state-owned organization, which oversees 11 airports in the Scandinavian nation, has a target of zero CO2 emissions by 2020. Last year’s output of 4,600 tonnes of CO2 was a drop of 44% over 2010, achieved by substituting renewable fuel sources for fuel oil for heating, the organization said. A relatively mild winter also saw lower use of snow removal and ice-clearing airport vehicles....More

Finavia has become the first airport operator in Northern Europe to adopt collaborative decision making (CDM) in a bid to reduce delays, optimize resources and boost cost-efficiency at Helsinki Airport (HEL). Airport CDM (A-CDM) improves the exchange of information between key partners at an airport, facilitating better decision making, based on more accurate and timely information. It can improve operational efficiency by cutting delays, improving predictability and optimizing the use of resources....More

The Turkish government is moving forward with plans for a third airport in Istanbul, joining Istanbul Ataturk (IST) and Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen (SAW). The proposed new airport, which would include five runways, would handle about 100 million passengers annually. The first phase should be completed by 2016; the second phase should open by 2023, expanding capacity to 150 million passengers....More

US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced an $8.1 million grant to upgrade the electrical system at José Aponte de la Torre Airport in Ceiba, Puerto Rico. The grant will fund replacement of the airport’s electrical system to meet current and future airport demands, bringing the system into compliance with the Puerto Rico Electrical Power Agency’s electrical grid requirements....More