Medvedev to visit Sheremetyevo air traffic control center Wednesday

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will visit Moscow's Sherremetyevo airport on Wednesday and chair a conference on the development of regional aviation, the government press service announced. The Head of Government will also inspect Aeroflot's situation room (air traffic control center) and attend the presentation of a new Far Eastern air company, the Aurora (which was founded on Medvedev's assignment on July 3, 2012, on the basis of regional Vladivostok-Aviz and Sakhalin Airlines companies which had been part of the Aeroflot Group since 2011). Those present at the conference will discuss prospects for the development of smal-scale aviation, and review the implementation and financing of respective purpose-oriented programmes. The following person will participate in the conference: Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov, Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov, Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov, Regional Development Minister Igor Slynyayev, Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev, as well as Assistant to the President Igor Levitin, Alexander Neradko, Head of Rosaviatsiya (Federal Air Tranaporr Agency), Vitaly Savelyev, Aeroflot's General Director, and Sakhalin Region Governor Alexander Khoroshavin. "The conference will be held in a continuation of a series of meetings dedicated to the development of transport and transport infrastructure," a government official pontedout out, recalling that recently the theme of regional aviation was raised at a lot of meetings and at a government meeting. In 2012, airliners carried 33.4 million passengers in inland flights, including more than seven million in interregional ones (counting out Moscow). This year, the indicators is forecasted to grow by 16.4 percnet -- up to 8.45 million passengers. A number of government programmes, including those to subsidize regional transportation by air, are in operation with a view to developing this aspect of aviation. The emergence of about 100 new air routes and the introduction of up to 30 airliners to the service constitute an expected result of the measures taken in 2013, government press service materials point out. The newly founded air company Aurora, with which Medvedev will familiarize himself on Wednesday, is one of examples of development of regional air services. "As an integrated Far Eastern air company the Aurora is of strategic importance for Russia's Far East," a press service official poitned out, emphaszing tha the air comany is designed to promote a rise in the mobility of the population and improve the accessibility of the region. It is planned that the overall number of flights by the air copany's airliners will increase from 172 in 2013 to 534 in 2018; the number of destinations will grow from 30 to 128, while the number of passengers travelling by air will grow up to 2.4 million.