Russia to spend 203 bln rubles on airfields in 2026-2028 - Ministry of Finance

MOSCOW. Sept 24 (Interfax) - Russia plans to spend 202.6 billion rubles on the federal project to develop the country's backbone network of airfields in 2026-2028, the Finance Ministry said, citing the draft federal budget for the next three years that it submitted to the government.

There are plans to overhaul and build at least 75 airfields in the period to 2030, the ministry said in a press release.

It was reported earlier that there are plans to modernize a total of 129 airfields in Russia in the period to 2030. The Transport Ministry estimated the required financing for 2025-2030 at more than 522 billion rubles, including 366 billion rubles from the federal budget, 128 billion rubles from extra-budgetary sources and 29 billion rubles from the country's regions.

There are plans to do reconstruction and new construction work at 76 airfields, with 28 of them to be updated under concession agreements with investors. The state budget's contribution will range from 20% to 90% of the project cost, depending on the airport's passenger traffic, the Transport Ministry said. An infrastructure fee on airlines was passed into law in September to compensate private investments.

Another more than 50 small regional airfields are expected to undergo major repairs. This work will be financed by higher air navigation fees for airlines that began to be charged at the end of last year.

The modernization of airfields will ultimately be financed by higher prices for plane tickets, with the aviation authorities estimating that the rate burden per passenger will average 150 rubles.

The Finance Ministry also said in its press release on the submission of the budget plan to the government that funding for roads in the next three years will exceed the level seen in the preceding years. The budget plan allocates 4.6 trillion rubles for this purpose, the ministry said.