Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport opened the first phase of its newest international terminal Friday.
Sheremetyevo is the eighth-busiest airport in Europe, with more than 49.9 million travelers using its terminals last year.
Terminal C, the airport’s fifth terminal, covers 127,000 square meters and has an annual capacity of 20 million passengers. With the opening of Terminal C, Sheremetyevo’s maximum capacity will reach 80 million passengers per year, making it the largest airport in Russia.
Russia’s national carrier Aeroflot, which accounts for 80% of Sheremetyevo’s traffic, will be the main airline using the new terminal.
While the government provided funding for the infrastructure and the construction of a third runway, it didn’t provide any funding for the terminal itself, Deputy Transport Minister Alexander Yurchik told The Moscow Times.
The new terminal’s construction cost more than 32 billion rubles ($500 million), said Alexander Ponomarenko, the chairman of the airport’s board of directors. Last year Sheremetyevo announced that construction would cost 19.9 billion rubles ($320 million).
The second phase of Terminal C, which will serve 10 million passengers annually, is expected to be completed after 2026.