Sochi Airport: the Olympics Test Passed!

The Sochi Olympics and Paralympics are over. Now that official delegations, athletes, visitors and the legions of volunteers have said goodbye and headed home, the city tries to come back to its common life in a newly upgraded environment. The same thing can be said about Sochi airport and ground handling companies, which had an extremely busy period during the Olympics and Paralympics.

Since Russia won the right to host the Olympics, many important construction projects turned out and as a result Soviet Style Airport was transformed into a modern facility with a new International Terminal. In addition to the new international terminal, a brand new VIP Terminal also launched at the end of 2013. The terminal, featuring modern equipment, is conveniently located adjacent to the main airport complex. The exit from the highway to Sochi, dedicated parking, comfortable waiting lounge and five isolated meeting rooms ensure privacy for the most demanding passengers. The in-house café is run by the catering service of a premium hotel.

This 4000-square-meter facility, designed for the capacity of 80 GA and VIP passengers per hour, was of especially high demand during the 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. The investment also included a new integrated security system that enables Sochi to monitor security conditions 24/7, a three-level baggage scanning system from Rapiscan, new cargo terminal and a temporary Games Terminal (Terminal D) for athletes.

In total, $450 million were invested to the airport's development; around 40 percent of this came from airport management company “Basel Aero” and 60 percent from the Russian state-run VneshEconomBank (VEB).

Those improvements are important because this gateway should be used for some of the world's top political and sports events shortly after the Games: the G8 Summit (which is under question now), followed by an International Investment Forum in September. An annual Formula 1 Grand Prix race will take place in October and in 2018 a stadium in the Olympic Park will be one of Russia's arenas during the football World Cup.

Streamline OPS Team (which is one of the largest ground support and handling networks in Russia) and its local supervisors are proud to be a part of such a great event. They are glad they had the opportunity to work in this modern airport during the Olympics and Paralympics and hope the high standards of service will remain on the same high level in the future. The airport survived the Olympics and is able to cater for all possible needs of future trips into Sochi.

Streamline OPS has a fully staffed presence at more than 100 airports in Russia and neighboring countries, where it is able to provide ground support, permits, fuel, catering,  HOTAC and ground transportations set-up. Please learn more by visiting our website at www.streamline-ops.com.