International air travel specialists from Airport Consulting Vienna have presented the results of their two-month research into possible locations for an upgraded Dnipro International Airport. The findings were presented at a mid-March Dnipro City Hall meeting attended by Dnipro Mayor Boris Filatov and representatives of Oleksandr Yaroslavsky’s DCH Group, which is set to serve as the principle private investor in the initiative.
Talks over a possible overhaul of Dnipro’s airport facilities gained momentum in late 2018 after talks between Filatov and Yaroslavsky. Following on from these discussions, DCH Group agreed to finance an independent international assessment looking at a number of scenarios for a new-look Dnipro region airport.
Airport Consulting Vienna began their research in January 2019. Company experts examined three potential sites for the planned airport. These included the existing Dnipro International Airport site and two alternatives: the Kamyanka airfield close to Dnipro and a site located near to the village of Solone between Dnipro and Zaporizhia.
Airport Consulting Vienna representative Yuri Rubanov commented that in all three cases the recommended runway length would be 3200 meters based on the target of servicing four million passengers annually. The passenger catchment area was envisaged as including Dnipro region along with parts of Poltava, Kirovohrad and Zaporizhia regions. None of the proposed sites offered any meteorological advantages.
Airport Consulting Vienna officials identified the Solone site as the least attractive option due to the almost complete absence of the requisite infrastructure to maintain a major international airport and provide suitable access for passengers and services. The site would also place the airport in competition with Zaporizhia’s own international airport, which is currently undergoing a major upgrade.
The existing Dnipro International Airport site was named as the most economically attractive option, with a price tag of EUR 214.3 million for a complete renovation and a timeframe of two years. This could be achieved without stopping existing flight services, Vienna analysts explained. In comparison, they calculated that the development of new sites would take up to five years to complete and would cost at least EUR 400 million.