At the extended meeting of the committee of the upper chamber of the Federal Assembly in Moscow on 29 January 2019, senators considered the report delivered by Valery Bespalov, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Penza Region, and devoted to the development of transport infrastructure in the region.
“The region carried out activities under the project “Reconstruction of covering on the existing artificial runway pavement at Penza Airport”, which made it possible to more than double the passenger traffic over the past 4 years – from 75.4 thousand passengers in 2014 to 181.5 thousand passengers in 2018,” Valery Bespalov reported.
“Penza Airport is a federal airport. However, despite technical and technological re-equipment, the low traffic capacity of the air terminal, which is only 100 individuals per hour, is a major constraint to advancing air transportation in the region. The airport has no arrival and baggage claim area. Thus, people leave the airportoutdoors,”the deputy chairman emphasized.
Valery Bespalov specified that the Governor of the Penza Region initiated developing an architectural concept for the new air terminal building and submitting design estimates for the facility. “Currently, they are undergoing state expert review. The project was funded from the budget of the Penza Region, the estimated cost of constructing the facility is 760.5 million roubles,”he explained.
In order to further upgrade Penza airport, open new routes, and increase the number of flights, it was proposed to introduce the initiative of the regional government and address the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation on including the project “Construction of a new building for the air terminal in Penza” in the list of facilities and activities of the federal targeted investment programme “Development of the transport system in the Russian Federation”.
