Strong growth at Siberia's largest airport points to bright future

The increase is specially marked on international routes - a rise of 25.9%, carrying 1,250,978 passengers. The rise in passenger traffic inside Russia was 13.7% above the level for 2011. 

The airport - also known as Tolmachevo - is positioning itself as a major hub between Europe and Asia for both passengers and cargo and has ambitious plans for growth in the coming years. 

During the past year, Novosibirsk International Airport handled 28,028 tons of cargo and mail, a rise of 29%. 

'The growth of all positions at Novosibirsk airport was determined by arrival of new passenger and cargo airlines including Turkish Airlines, Yangtze River Express, Azerbaijan Airlines, Belavia and others as well as the opening of new routes,' said a statement by the airport. 

Officials were pleased at the 'growing number of technical stops of foreign cargo airlines and successful airport marketing strategy (which) also contributed to the outstanding performance'.

The airport saw increased flight frequency to the existing destinations of Moscow, Beijing, Dubai, Bishkek, and Osh.

But the year 2012 also saw the addition of key new domestic and international routes, notably  Minsk, Istanbul, Dusseldorf, Sharjah, Kulob, Munich, Hong-Kong, Fergana, Ganja, Omsk, and Blagoveshchensk.

New international routes due to start in 2013 include Helsinki, Tel-Aviv, and Seoul, with the additional Russian destinations of Kaliningrad and Tyumen.

Targets for 2013 are for passenger numbers to reach 3.7 million and cargo and mail traffic to top 35,000 tons.