As expected, Russian national carrier Aeroflot is to relocate all of its passenger operations to Moscow Sheremetyevo's new 172,000sq m Terminal 3 facility where Aer Rianta International will operate the duty free contract. The terminal

is capable of handling 12m passengers a year, or 270 daily flights when it opens this winter – of which 70% will be international.

Aer Rianta International (ARI) was awarded the seven-year duty free contract in its own right at T3 two years ago, covering eight stores which ARI expects will generate around E.1bn ($1.4bn) over the full contract period.

JSC Terminal, the operator of Terminal 3, has awarded ARI retail space comprising more than 2,200sq m and besides its larger stores, ARI will also operate a small duty free shop for airline crew and two non-duty free shops in the Domestic Airside area.

In its first year, T3 is expected to handle around 5.7m departing passengers, of which around 67% are expected to be international.

While no formal opening date has yet been announced, T3 has been undergoing operational testing for several months now with JSC Terminal aiming to open alongside the setting of Aeroflot's new winter flight schedule.

The new terminal will act as the SkyTeam alliance's base in Russia and is expected to be a huge improvement on the run down facilities that Sheremetyevo has endured for many years in Terminals 1 and 2. The airport has also lost traffic over the last two or three years as some airlines have chosen to relocate to Moscow's other major airport of Domodedevo.

Aeroflot now aims to relocate all of its passenger operations from Sheremetyevo 2 and Sheremetyevo 1 and it also hopes to create a very efficient hub operation which will reduce transfer times from domestic to international flights to just 60 minutes.