In Sevastopol they want to abandon the ministerial scheme for the Belbek airfield
Sevastopol must regain the right to develop the civilian sector of the Belbek military airfield, which is now given to Simferopol International Airport.
State Duma deputy from Sevastopol Dmitry Belik told journalists about this, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
According to him, in 2017, the government of Sevastopol liquidated the State Unitary Enterprise “Sevastopol Airport”, renouncing its rights to Belbek. Sevastopol airport became a branch of Simferopol airport.
The Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation has prescribed a complex scheme according to which the government of Sevastopol must buy back shares of Simferopol International Airport for 780 million rubles. This money will then be invested in the reconstruction of the civil sector of Belbek.
However, Belik fears that this will not be done.
“There will be competition. Simferopol Airport, being the owner of Belbek, will not be interested in developing regular air transportation in the civil sector and will quite possibly limit itself to business aviation only. We need a normal airport in Sevastopol, so that Sevastopol residents do not spend 2 hours getting to Simferopol,” Belik said.
He believes that Sevastopol should abandon the scheme proposed by the ministry and independently develop Belbek, for the reconstruction of which the Federal Target Program for the Development of Crimea provides for the allocation of 1,7 billion rubles. The opportunity to do this is made possible by the fact that in August 2018 the court declared the liquidation of the State Unitary Enterprise Sevastopol Airport illegal.
“The most correct thing to do is to finance the work here; the property should remain in the city. Another option is to involve the Ministry of Defense as a partner,” Belik said.
He turned to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev with a request to support his proposal.
Simferopol airport is controlled by the owners of Rossiya Bank, the Kovalchuk brothers.
Sevastopol wants to abandon the ministerial plan for the Belbek airfield.