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Sheremetyevo International Airport

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{| class="infobox bordered" style="width: 220px; font-size: 95%;" |- ! colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #4682B4; color: white;" |Sheremetyevo International Airport |- !align="center" bgcolor="#4682B4" colspan="4"| Summary |- |- ! bgcolor="lightgrey"|IATA |SVO ! bgcolor="lightgrey"|ICAO |UUEE |- !colspan="2" align="left" valign="top"|Airport type |colspan="2" valign="top"|Public |- !colspan="2" align="left" valign="top"|Serves |colspan="2" valign="top"|Moscow |- !colspan="2" align="left" valign="top"|Elevation MSL |colspan="2" valign="top"|629 ft (192 m) |- !colspan="2" align="left" valign="top"|Coordinates |colspan="2" valign="top"|[55°58′00″N, 037°25′00″E] |- !colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #4682B4; color: white;" |Runways |- !bgcolor="lightgrey" rowspan="2"|Direction !bgcolor="lightgrey" colspan="2"|Length !bgcolor="lightgrey" rowspan="2"|Surface |- !bgcolor="lightgrey"|ft !bgcolor="lightgrey"|m |- !align="left" valign="top"|07L/25R |valign="top" align="right"|11,646 |valign="top" align="right"|3,550 |valign="top"|Paved |- !align="left" valign="top"|07R/25L |valign="top" align="right"|12,139 |valign="top" align="right"|3,700 |valign="top"|Paved

Sheremetyevo International Airport (Russian: Шереме́тьево) , is an International airport which serves Moscow, Russia (located [55°58′21″N, 37°24′53″E]). It is a hub for the passenger operations of the Russian international airline Aeroflot. Moscow has several airports, of which the two most used are Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo International Airport (with Vnukovo a distant third). The IATA area code for Sheremetievo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo is MOW.

Sheremetyevo was opened on 11 August 1959; the first international flight was on 1 June 1960 to Berlin (Schönefeld Airport). Sheremetyevo-1 (used by domestic flights) was opened on 3 September 1964. On 12 September 1967, the first scheduled passenger flight of Tupolev Tu-134 departed from Sheremetyevo (to Stockholm), followed by the first scheduled flight of Ilyushin Il-62 (to Montreal) on 15 September.

Approaching Sheremetyevo-2, June 2005
Enlarge
Approaching Sheremetyevo-2, June 2005
Sheremetyevo-2 (the most likely entrance point for most tourists) was opened on 1 January 1980 for the Moscow Olympics.

Sheremetyevo-2 is the larger of the two terminals, and is the arrival and departure point for international flights. Flights to cities in Russia and charter flights arrive and depart Sheremetyevo-1. There is no physical connection between the two terminals; they are essentially separate airports using the same set of runways.

Today, the airport processes almost 12 million passengers annually (it recorded 12,174,000 passengers in 2005). This represents almost a quarter of all air passengers, and over 60% of the passengers on international airline flights. [Figures according to the official website].

Contents

Transport and accessibility

It can take anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours from the city center to get to the airport. The main road leading to the airport — Leningradskoe Highway — can get clogged during the rush hour, often resulting in passengers missing their flights. Taxi fares tend to vary; the better your Russian, the lower the costs of getting to the airport. Slow buses and faster minivans (fixed price shared taxis) connect Sheremetyevo with Moscow's extensive metro network.

The airport lies in Moscow Oblast. The Moscow city, a separate federal entity with an infinitely larger budget, has been trying to gain control of it for years. So far this hasn't happened and the city is unwilling to single-handedly finance a rapid transit system to link Moscow and the airport; Moscow Oblast is too poor to share the costs. Eventually, Sheremetyevo is due to be linked to Moscow's Savyolovsky Rail Terminal by a rapid train system by the end of 2007 when Sheremetyevo's train station is completed. As a first stage of the project, in 2004 express train connection from the Savyolovsky Terminal to Lobnya station, which is about 2/3 of the way to Sheremetyevo, followed by a bus, has been opened.

Problems

Sheremetyevo airport was called Europe's worst airport by The Russia Journal. The airport's infamous problems used to include long queues, delays at immigration, parking problems, dim lighting, poor seating, poor service and extremely inadequate transport links to the city. An ongoing renovation of Sheremetyevo-2 somehow alleviated some of these problems.

Connecting internationally to flights bound for Russian or CIS cities from Sheremetyevo can be a hassle. The only visa-free transfer between the international and domestic terminals is a shuttle bus run by Aeroflot. All other exits from the airport require a Russian visa, even if one holds a visa for another CIS country. Thankfully most of the CIS flights have been over the years moved to Sheremetyevo-2.

Ongoing construction

In the 2000s Sheremetyevo saw growing competition from a newer and more comfortable (albeit smaller) Domodedovo International Airport. With major airlines leaving Sheremetyevo (most notably, British Airways and Swiss International Air Lines), the need for reconstruction has become ever more evident.

Upgrading the airport will include construction of a new terminal, Sheremetyevo-3 - construction which was supposed to be paid for by the Russian national airline Aeroflot. Aeroflot currently accounts for over 50% of passengers arriving and departing Sheremetyevo and desperately needs its own terminal in order to gain admittance into SkyTeam alliance. Construction of the long-awaited third terminal finally started in summer 2005. It is slated for completion by the end of 2007; by that time more than 15 million passengers will be passing through Sheremetyevo's various terminals.

A brand new, state-of-the-art, Terminal 1 is slated for completion by March 2007. This terminal is to have capacity for 8 million passengers per year and 40,000-square-meter of surface. The old Terminal 1 (or Sheremetyevo-1) currently caters mainly to internal flights. It will be refurbished as a terminal for business jets.

The infamous Terminal 2 (or Sheremetyevo-2) is undergoing what the airport's management calls "cosmetic repairs", but a major reconstruction of this terminal is due to be done in the near future and completed by the end of 2008. After the reconstruction, which reportedly is to cost $310 million, Terminal 2's capacity is to be more than doubled, from 8 million to 18 million passengers per year, and it will be capable of servicing the giant Airbus A380.

A rapid transit system (mentioned above) was supposed to connect the airport to Leningrad Station (Leningradskii vokzal) in Moscow, the departure point for trains to Saint Petersburg, formerly Leningrad. These plans seemed to be put on hold as the City of Moscow announced it was going to concentrate efforts on upgrading a third Moscow airport, Vnukovo but, more recently, these plans have come up again since the Sheremetyevo's train station is due to be completed by the end of 2007 and it will be linked to the Savyolovsky Station in Moscow. The train journey will take only 30 minutes.

The airport's two runways are set for major reconstruction, including widening and resurfacing. The Moscow government has reserved a piece of land by the airport for a future third runway.

Airlines flying into Sheremetyevo

The following airlines are among the more than 80 airlines (according to the airport's official site) that fly to Sheremetyevo International Airport:

External links

 

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