After several years of efforts with a local partner, AFT Project, ALSTEF won its first contract in Russia for equipping Nizhny Novgorod International Airport.

ALSTEF will supply the baggage control and handling system at departures and arrivals in a new terminal being built for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

The client, RENOVA GROUP, through its subsidiary AIRPORTS OF REGIONS, is one of the largest private groups in Russia (and the leading airport operator in Russia outside Moscow). They experienced a very rapid growth in the market for airport concessions, with the integration of Ekaterinburg Koltsovo, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don and Samara Kurumoch Airports.

All those airports are located in one of the cities involved in the 2018 FIFA World Cup to be held in Russia, and their terminal installations will be partially or completely redesigned. Their baggage sorting system will be part of those reconstruction projects.

At Nizhny Novgorod Airport, the project will include, at departures, 18 baggage check-in counters grouped in four islands. Local and international bags will be processed differently, since international bags are subjected to additional controls to comply with the Russian legislation: X-Ray control for customs processing, in addition to explosive detection and checking of radiation level.

The explosive detection system will include four X-Ray machines integrated to the baggage handling system, including one for oversize bags. Redundancy will be assured in the case of a machine failure.

The bags subjected to a special declaration (weapons, hazardous material…) will be checked in and controlled in a specific area upstairs before they are transported to the sorting area via an automatic transportation unit. The bags will then be sorted on four departure carousels.

At the arrivals, the bags will be processed in the conventional manner on four delivery carousels.

Not considering the customs/security baggage processing rules specific to Russia, the main challenge will be to carry out this project within a very short time limit since this terminal must be operational in October 2015, a period of approximately six months to install a complete baggage transportation, control and sorting system.