The Platov International Airport (member of the Airports of Regions Holding) serviced 257.8 k passengers from June 14 to July 3, 2018, which is 51% above the like period in the last year. The number of airfield operation soared by 69.9% as well: the total number of arriving and departing flights amounted to 2,346 during the Mundial period. Each fourth flight was added to the schedule – for transportation of teams, organized groups of fans, and official delegations to the World Cup matches held in Rostov-on-Don.
The all-time high daily passenger traffic was recorded on June 23, 2018. The Platov Airport serviced 19.7 k individuals and 212 flights on the day of the match between teams of Mexico and the Republic of Korea, which is 2 times above the standard load in summer season. Boeing 747, one of the largest civil airplanes, landed in the Rostov-on-Don airport for the first time on the same day and the airport received wide-body aircraft Boeing 777 for three times and Airbus A330 - twice in total during the World Cup period.Rostov-on-Don was connected by flights with all cities where World Cup matches were held during Mundial days and growth was recorded on all of them. In particular, passenger traffic to Ekaterinburg surged 5.5-fold (3.8 k individuals), to Sochi - by 3.7 times (3.7 k individuals), to Samara - 2.5-fold (2.6 k individuals). The number of passengers to St. Petersburg surged by 43% (20.2 k individuals) and to Moscow - by 49.8% (136.9 k individuals). 5 thousand more passengers were carried by flights to Kaliningrad, Kazan, Nizhniy Novgorod, Saransk, and Volgograd.We would like to note specifically that the passenger traffic in the VIP terminal of the Platov Airport increased significantly. 1,105 passengers took advantage of the VIP terminal during the period of group stage and the last sixteen matches of the World Cup, which is 4 times above the like period of the last year.– It can be stated with confidence that the Platov Airport – the infrastructure, the staff and our aviation and commercial partners – successfully coped with servicing of the World Cup guests, says Sergei Krasnov, the Executive Director of the Platov Airport. – We managed to efficiently organize work on concurrent servicing of thousands of guests, keep regularity of flights at a high level, and ensure aviation safety. Nevertheless, we believe that the main result is our readiness to work later on at such events of international scale. World Cup guests appreciated hospitality of Rostov-on-Don in general and friendliness of the Platov Airport staff in particular. Concerts and match broadcasts took place daily in the hospitality zone. Folk teams welcomed organized groups of fans. Volunteers and interpreters helped with taking bearings in the airport and transport connections with the city and the Rostov Area. Announcements were dubbed in foreign language during arrival days of fans - in Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Korean, etc.