With a new runway operational and a gleaming new international terminal opening this month, Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport has set an ambitious target to double traffic to 100m passengers a year.
Nearly half are set to come from routes that were until only recently an afterthought: connecting flights between Europe and Asia, boosted by breakneck growth in tourism from China.
The weak rouble — currently trading at 62 to the dollar, less than half its value five years ago — has made Russia one of the top three destinations worldwide for Chinese tourists, Russian officials say. State agency Rosturizm estimated more than 2m Chinese tourists visited Russia last year — compared with just 158,000 a decade ago.