Sochi Airport

The Presidents of the Olympic Committees of Russia and Georgia discussed the preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi at the Twelfth International Economic Forum in St Petersburg, which opened on June 7.

Russian Olympic Committee president Leonid Tyagachev said he hoped Georgian and Russian athletes could prepare for the Olympics together in an effort to improve bilateral relations. “I think that two young and nice presidents…will make the right decision,” Tyagachev said.

“It is important for us to cooperate and hold competitions on both Georgian and Russian territory. We will be able to unite through the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014 and do a beautiful thing,” Tyagachev said.

Still six years to go, officials in this Black Sea resort are concerned about Olympics 2014, as Moscow faced criticism last month, when the capital’s hotels struggled to manage an influx of 40,000 football fans for the Champions League final.

Sochi officials have pledged an extra 35,000 hotel rooms in the next few years. “We are sure we won’t have the same problems as Moscow, plenty of available and affordable rooms is a priority,” said Yelena Pavlovich, head of the city administration’s hotel development department.

Prestigious Russian film festival Kinotavr kicks off in Sochi tonight. Famous film director Aleksei German will be presented a special award for outstanding artistic contribution to the development of Russian cinema art, in the opening ceremony. On June 15 at the closing ceremony, Armen Medvedev will be awarded for outstanding contribution to the development of Russian cinema art and film science.

Russian tour operators say the tourists visiting Sochi this year are less compared to other resorts in Krasnodar Region. The building sites and Olympics 2014 construction traffic jams are keeping the tourists away. It is very contradicting, considering the fact that the Olympics work has not yet started and traffic jams are lesser compared to 2007.  Another reason for Sochi’s decreasing popularity  - a holiday here is around 1.5 times more expensive than the neighbouring resorts.

OJSC Airline “Siberia”, working under brand S7 Airlines, renews seasonal flight from St. Petersburg to Sochi. Flights will operate till end of September, 2008.

Students from universities in St. Petersburg will work in the tourism sector during the Sochi Olympics-2014 - said Sergei Krylov, Executive Director of the National Academy of Tourism. He noted that “legal bind” of graduates for the domestic tourism industry would help attract staff to work at the Olympics in 2014 in Sochi. Currently Tourism is being taught to about 3500 students in St. Petersburg  and most of them usually leave to work abroad.

Tourism component of the Olympics in Sochi would need about 30 thousand professionals and it is clear that Krasnodar region itself cannot offer so many people - stressed S. Krylov. Students from St. Petersburg and Legislative consolidation would give additional impetus for the formation of volunteers to work at the Olympics

On June 5, 2008 we are adding a second KrasAir (a part of AiRUnion) flight between Moscow (Domodedovo) and Sochi (Adler). The flight Boeing 737-300 will operate on a daily basis. AiRUnion currently provides a daily service between Sochi and Moscow Domodedovo International Airport.

MOSCOW/SOCHI, May 27 (RIA Novosti) - Dexter Air Taxi, Russia’s first aircraft taxi service, gave a presentation in Sochi, a Russian Black Sea resort, on Tuesday to mark the launch of operations in southern Russia, the company said in a statement. Read the complete Post.

The representative of the Strabag, Nikole Ziegler, announced that Strabag will reconstruct Sochi Adler airport. Strabag is Australia-based construction group. Read the complete Post.

Just in time of the summer of 2008, VIM-Avia airlines opens a number of new scheduled flights on the new routes, including Sochi - Moscow.

Read the complete Post.