Pulkovo St. Petersburg Airport reports operational results for 2018 FIFA World Cup

During the 2018 FIFA World Cup, from June 13 to July 15, 2018, Pulkovo St. Petersburg Airport welcomed 2.2 million passengers, which represents an 11.4% increase in traffic numbers over the previous year. The number of passengers on domestic flights amounted to 1.2 million people (+8.9%), while 1 million passengers took international flights to or from Pulkovo in the same period (+14.5%).

From June 13 to July 15, 2018, the airport of the Northern capital of Russia handled a total of 18,793 air traffic movements, of which 11,001 were domestic flights and 7,792 international flights. Over this period, these included 1,726 inbound and outbound flights by business aviation aircraft.

The peak day for Pulkovo airport, in terms of passenger traffic and take-offs and landings, was July 11, 2018, the day after the World Cup semi-final game between Belgium and France in St. Petersburg. On this day, the airport welcomed 74,608 passengers and 884 in- and outbound flights, including 264 private jet take-offs and landings.

“It was a great honor for Pulkovo Airport as St. Petersburg’s air gateway to welcome World Cup guests from all over the world. The well-coordinated interaction of all airport services and successful cooperation with state bodies allowed us to successfully fulfill FIFA’s requirements for servicing national teams, press and fans. Even with the intensified traffic and security restrictions, the airport continued to operate seamlessly for our regular passengers during the high summer season due to the launch of a temporary terminal for receiving charter flights with fans at Pulkovo-2. We have done a lot of work in this direction and now plan to use the created infrastructure during the European Football Championship in 2020. We expect that the practice of simplified visa regime will be further spread contributing to the growth of the inbound tourist flow to St. Petersburg and other Russian cities”, said Vladimir Yakushev, Chief Executive Officer of Northern Capital Gateway LLC, the operator of Pulkovo Airport.

During the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Pulkovo Airport greeted national teams from 16 countries participating in the championship: Russia, Morocco, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, South Korea, Brazil, Nigeria, Argentina, Costa Rica, Croatia, Sweden, Switzerland, England, France, and Belgium. The foreign teams brought to St. Petersburg a total of more than 27 tons of baggage. The largest delegation with the heaviest baggage was from Saudi Arabia (62 people and 8.64 tons of baggage). In total, airplanes with football teams onboard performed 67 flights to and from Pulkovo.