Turkish Airlines has just launched three weekly flights to Russia with 167-seat 737-800s 's third-largest city Novosibirsk from its Istanbul Atatürk hub and is now the biggest foreign airline serving the Siberian city. Still, China is by far the biggest international country market at the airport. Tolmachevo Airport, which serves Russia's third-largest city Novosibirsk, ranks as the sixth-largest airport in Russia after the three Moscow airports, St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, and is the busiest in Siberia.
Except after the Russian financial crisis of 1998 and the global economic downturn in 2009, the airport has experienced healthy growth in the last 15 years with 2011 passenger numbers well over the double those of 1998. However, growth has been particularly strong after the most recent recession. Last year alone, international passengers in Novosibirsk grew by 45% and domestic figures were up by 13%, resulting in an overall growth of almost a quarter of the airport's total passengers.
Growth continues this year. In January and February, total passengers were up by a third over the corresponding period last year. Again, it is international traffic that grows the fastest; +37% compared with 31% growth in the domestically.
64% of the airport's passengers travel on domestic services, with the remaining 36% contributed by international travel. Among the top four domestic destinations are routes to the three Moscow airports Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo. The combined seat capacity to these airports make up more than half of Novosibirsk's domestic seat capacity. The third-busiest route is notably to Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East, which ranks ahead of operations to both Moscow Vnukovo and St Petersburg.
