Market potential of Lappeenranta Airport in the North-West Region of Russia

Abstract

The main target of this research is to evaluate current situation on the Russian market in North-west region and attempt to predict the future of Lappeenranta Airport operations on it. Even though many Russians in West-North region are eager to find cheapest prices for traveling, they are also not ridiculous. If the difference in quality/price is not that significant, people won’t fall for the cheapest. For instance, while there is RyanAir in Lappeenranta with their extremely cheap tickets, it’s still up for further research, whether additional costs, as transfer to the airport, parking prices, time and food spent on the way etc are not making it even compared to closer, but more expensive airport in Saint-Petersburg. Another factor is psychological - will there be enough people willing to overcome time and difficulties to first travel 220km just to save some money? In the end, why are low-cost airlines not so widely present at the Russian market? What keeps them from entering? What if it’s under development and current advantage of Lappeenranta is soon to be over, when RyanAir and other come on Russian market directly? Is that possible? How may Russian market respond? Another question is will the airport be ready for many visitors, if it turns out to be a successful idea? What are it’s bottlenecks and shortcomings? It’s a small airport, that has a small facility, only one runway - what is it’s capacity? Are there potential plans and resources for growth?