01.10.2020, 17:19 19859

Capital airport revenue reduced by 70 percent due to pandemic

It is worth noting that Priority Pass is an international program that allows passengers to visit VIP lounges at airports around the world with only an air ticket.
During a press tour, Chairman of the Board of the Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport Gabit Tazhimuratov shared how the coronavirus pandemic affected the work of the capital's air harbor, Kazpravda.kz reports.

If last year the passenger traffic exceeded 5 million people, then this year there are hardly two million passengers. As a result, revenues have dropped by 70 percent. Our international terminal was idle for 2 months. We cut off the electricity to save money and sent our employees to idle. In addition, we had to cut KPI in wages, "- said the speaker.


According to him, the coronavirus pandemic did not affect the salaries of airport employees.

The only thing was that the KPI was removed, but even then, those who have a small salary continued working. For example, for people who are at a checkpoint or on guard. This is about 1,000 people. There will be no staff cuts among the production service. According to the law, there must be 4 people at one inspection point. This is mandatory by decree (...) The Head of State in his Address voiced the need to cut staff both in government agencies and in the quasi-public sector. It is necessary to reduce 10%, but we will not dismiss production workers. The cuts will be made among the administrative and management personnel," Tazhimuratov continued.


According to him, approximately 50 retail spaces in the airport were also exempted from paying rent until the end of the year. Because of this, the airport has already lost more than 1 billion tenge from rent in two terminals.

“Since we do not know how long the quarantine will last, we are switching to transit cargo transportation. On September 24, we attracted the AeroTrans Carwel airline, which previously operated flights through the Karaganda airport. Until the new year, we freed people from renting space, which was also our income earlier. These are cafes, shops," added the speaker.

He also noted that the airport's main income comes from international and cargo flights. According to the Executive director of the airport Daulet Khamzin, the pandemic also affected the transit potential.

Since the number of international flights has dropped significantly, there is an enormous decline - by 83 percent in transit passengers and cargo. At the same time, in order to neutralize losses in passenger traffic, we will actively work to increase transit traffic," added Daulet Khamzin.


But with all this, the Priority Pass branded VIP lounge was opened today. According to Daulet Khamzin, this is the first hall in Central Asia, which was opened and invested directly by Priority Pass itself.

This is a branded exclusive hall, there are 1.3 thousand such business lounges around the world. Its distinguishing factor is to ensure passenger comfort regardless of the class of air tickets - economy or business class. Wi-Fi operates here in enhanced mode, there is a playground, free food", - said Gabit Tazhimuratov.


It is worth noting that Priority Pass is an international program that allows passengers to visit VIP lounges at airports around the world with only an air ticket.
 
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