British investment company Shanti Capital Ltd. is ready to invest at least $200 million in the development of Sevastopol infrastructure, in particular, the construction of an international airport on the basis of Belbek Airport, Mykola Berezin, the director of Shanti Ukraine Ltd. told journalists on Wednesday.
"The amount of possible investment would start from $200 million. This is only for the airport, while there are a recreation zone, hotels and other objects [that could receive investment]," he said.
The chairman of Sevastopol City Council, Valeriy Saratov, said that the construction of an international airport would raise the city’s investment attractiveness.
"Under Western European standards, a city with over 300,000 residents without an airport located closer than 40 minutes by road is not interesting to investors. This drawback would be eliminated with the realization of the project," he said.
"We agreed with our investor that we are to realize the project in the shortest terms. The realization of the project would be possible if it is supported by the city council," Saratov said.
The operation of Belbek civil airport was resumed on May 30, 2010.
On April 30, 2010, Dniproavia airlines said that the company had launched flights from Sevastopol to Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, and Moscow. Later AeroSvit airlines said that the company had signed a code-sharing agreement with Dniproavia on joint servicing Kyiv-Sevastopol and Dnipropetrovsk-Sevastopol flights.
Earlier Vinnytsia regional state council reported Shanti Capital’s interest in the development of the city’s airport. In particular, a potential investor was ready to invest $200 million in building a cargo terminal and a logistics center.
In addition, Shanti Capital plans to attract low-cost air carriers to Vinnytsia, and by doing it to increase the number of passengers passing through the airport to 18.5 million people per year.
