In spite of visible stagnation of the domestic economy, Russian airports show impressive growth rates of the amount of passengers in service. At the end of January-November 2013 the passenger traffic of the largest Russian air harbor - Moscow Domodedovo Airport - was 28,7 mln people, that is by 10% more than for the similar period of the previous year.

Being on the second place by the same index - Sheremetyevo International Airport (Moscow), has increased the passenger traffic by 11,7% to 27,14 mln people according to the results of 11 months of the year 2013.

The airport Pulkovo (Saint-Petersburg) has served fir the same period 12 mln people, that is by 15,3% more than the index of the similar period of the year 2012.
One more capital airport Vnukovo has got past the point of 10 mln people: 10,3 mln passengers have made use of hub’s services for the period under review, that is by 14,1% more than the index of the year 2012.

Now therefore, all three Moscow airports – Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, as well as St. Petersburg airport Pulkovo present double-digit growth rates of the amount of accepted passengers, what leads to the conclusion that the mobility of our citizens is growing from year to year.

Moscow air hub (Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo) being the largest one in Eastern Europe served 63,9 mln passengers in 2012, and for January-November of the current year – already 66,1 mln people. Besides Domodedovo, following the results of 2012, was on the 11th place in Europe, Sheremetyevo – on the 13th.

Pulkovo will set a new record for itself this year – for the first time in its history it will overrun the rate of 12 mln people. The only one airport of the Northern Capital was on the 36th place in Europe in 2012.

The largest airport beyond Moscow and Saint-Petersburg is Koltsovo (Ekaterinburg), which served the 4 millionth passenger on the 19th of December, that is also a record for it for all its modern history.

Other participants of the TOP-10 also set maximum, for all post-communist time, values by number of served passengers – these are airports of Novosibirsk, Krasnodar, Sochi, Ufa and Krasnoyarsk.

Total for 2012 ten airports of the country served 90,3 mln people (75,4% of the total passenger traffic), that is more by 13,2% than in 2011, besides the share of Moscow air hub among TOP-10 reaches the level of 71%. This figure proves the fact that a great number of air travel directions are concentrated and closed on Moscow, especially international. It is no surprise in Russia, that by the flight from Chelyabinsk to Yakutsk you’ll have to transfer at Moscow. It is necessary to develop a network of regional air transportations, including to those countries of the world, which are in demand with local population.

Picture 1. Passenger traffic dynamics of TOP-10 airports of Russia

According to the information and analytical system Globas-i® of the Agency Credinform there was an unequal increase of turnover by TOP-10 airports in 2012. Sheremetyevo International airport succeeded in its increasing most of all – by 66% to 15,2 bln RUB. Mainly it is connected with opening of a newly built terminal D and switching of a part of flights, including governmental, from Vnukovo (in view of closing of the second runway for reconstruction). 

While in Vnukovo the turnover decreased by about 30%. But after the reconstruction of the airfield complex and recent setting to work of a new terminal A, it is a high probability that the total revenue would show a positive dynamics at current year-end.

Other airport complexes, except Koltsovo (Ekaterinburg), show positive dynamics of turnover.

Cumulative turnover of TOP-10 the largest airports at year-end 2012 reached more than 38,12 bln RUB, went up by 25,9% per annum. According to the independent estimation of financial standing of enterprises provided by the Information Agency Credinform, all organizations of the presented rating reached a high solvency index GLOBAS-i®, that can be considered as a possibility of all companies to pay off their debts in time and fully, while risk of default is minimal or low. From investment point of view the business cooperation with mentioned organizations looks attractive enough and points at a good situation in the air transportation industry in general. Any disastrous decline should not be expected in the nearest time: tourist flow is growing (both outside, and inside), personal incomes, although slowly, but are increasing, which means that a growing number of our citizens can afford travelling by the most convenient transportation vehicle – by aircraft.

At the present time the governments of different countries are engaged in intensive activities on the introduction of the concept of open data, which are destined to ensure free access to the information, gathered by the state bodies and being not confidential. As of today more than 5000 open data sets are published. Among disclosed information are the data from the sphere of education, housing and communal sector, health care service, state purchases, as well as statistical data.

The importance of open data for entrepreneurship and development has become one of the subjects being active discussed during The XVIII St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF – 2014). As a reminder, in May 2012 the President of the RF set a task to ensure the access to open data of all state bodies in Internet. As the result of conducted work above 1000 data sets of government authorities and organs of local self-government were opened by July 2013, and by now their amount has exceed 5000. Following structures have turned out to be the most open: the Federal State Statistics Service, the Federal Service for Alcohol Market Regulation, the Federal Marine and River Transport Agency, the Federal Customs Service, as well as the Ministry of Education and Science of the RF.

In spite of marked progress in accessing to the data, Russia takes only the 30th place among 70 investigated countries of the world and the 7th place among G8 group of countries on the accessibility level of governmental information in the form of open data, as is evidenced by the rating prepared by British «Open Knowledge Foundation» (United Kingdom). First places in the rating belong to the USA and Great Britain, having become the pioneers in the sphere of open data in their time. From 1000 points possible within the rating they have scored 940 and 870 respectively - against 425 points by Russia. However, it is also worth noting that at the initial stage of realization of the initiative the indicators on disclosure of information of the state bodies in Russia exceeded the indicators of the USA more than 17 times: 800 data sets against 47.

Within the rating of open data the experts have estimated the accessibility of most important social information: election returns, government budget, government spending (state purchases), registration data of companies (company register), cartographic information (national map), statistical data, transport timetables, legislation, database of postcodes, data on major pollution sources (emissions of pollutants).

Russia has got good scores on disclosure in the sphere of state purchases: the experts have estimated the accessibility level at 70%, thereby set the RF among five world leaders on this indicator. Also the percent of disclosure in the sphere of the budget and national statistics has turned out to be high enough, here the index of our country makes 60%. As for the rest spheres there is a visible lag: data availability about transport timetables, in legislation, about registered companies and election returns the experts have estimated at 45%, and the availability of cartographic information – at 10%.

At the moment Great Britain is the only one country from G8, earned the highest score (100%) on the level of openness of companies’ registration data. Also Denmark has the maximal score on this point.

Germany has become the least open one from G8 countries, on the accessibility of governmental information taken as a whole, and the overall rating is closed, expected, by Cyprus.

However, the government agencies of different countries demonstrate contradictory relation to the protection of data and their confidentiality. According to the research data of American consulting company Forrester Research in 2013, China and Malaysia have the least level of legal protection. There are minimal restrictions in Russia, as well as in the USA, Brazil, Chile and India. And maximal restrictions are set in Norway, Finland, Germany and other European countries, as well as in Argentine.

Picture. Security and protection level of confidential data in countries of the world according to Forrester Research, the USA, 2013.

The experts note that as of today Russia is integrated into the global process of open data publication. The world economic effect from the introduction of open data makes $3–5 trillion per annum. Such economy is connected with the increase of economic potential due to the increase of effectiveness of new products and services creation, as well as to the reduction of risks. Investment attractiveness of the information sector is rising at the present time, because the knowledge of true and the most updated information gives competitive advantages independent of the line of activity. Like they say, who owns the information, owns the world.