More passengers kept coming through Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo International Airport from various destinations in May 2010 than in May 2009. For one, the airport’s international flights passenger turnover went up by 68.3% against May 2009, the passenger turnover on flights within the CIS rose by 47.5% last month compared with May 2009, while the passenger turnover on domestic flights increased by 14.3%.

The airport’s press officer reports the number of passengers flying through Koltsovo increased in May mostly thanks to customers flying to and from Moscow (the number of those jumped by 26.7% compared to a year earlier) and to and from popular vacation resorts. For one, the number of passengers flying to Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada soared last month because the airlines used more capacious aircraft and because the passenger demand was restored. Also, more people flew to Bangkok since more flights were offered to this destination and since a new air carrier entered this market niche. Finally, the number of passengers flying to Antalya, Phuket, and Prague increased as well. In the first case, this was due to the fact that more flights were offered and new airlines arrived on the market.

As for the countries of the near abroad, the passenger turnover rose on flights to Dushanbe, Namangan, Hudzhand, and Tashkent. Among domestic flights, the turnover increased on flights bound for Saint Petersburg. Another factor that contributed to last month’s impressive passenger turnover growth figures was the introduction of new destinations like Volgograd, Minsk, Osh, Rome, Rimini, Rhodes, and Beijing in Koltsovo Airport.