A number of important events occurred in the country's transport sector in March 2015:
- Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev attended the opening of the Mollaisalar-Valiushaghı-Mollaahmadli-Sarkarlar highway on March 12. The 15.5 kilometer highway connects 11 villages with a population of more than 10,000 people. The president was also informed about the Alpout-Mustafaaghali-Garatepe-Nazirli highway. Its overhaul has been completed. The total length of the new road is 22 km. It connects 14 villages with a population of more than 24,000 people.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on protection of national roads of general use in March. The president instructed Azeryolservis JSC together with the Main State Police Department to install the electronic scales and chips under a roadway to measure the weight of vehicles and load. This is necessary to use new technologies and electronic protocol about administrative violation in this area.
- The volume of investments in the Azerbaijani transport sector amounted to 210 million manat in the first quarter of 2015, Azerbaijani Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov said at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to the country's socio-economic development in the first quarter of 2015 and the upcoming challenges.
- Boeing and Azerbaijan-based Silk Way West today announced an order for three 747-8 Freighter airplanes valued at more than $1.1 billion at current list prices, Bloomberg reported.
- The talks were held between the chairman of Azerbaijani Railways CJSC Javid Gurbanov and director general of Uralvagonzavod Scientific and Production Corporation JSC Oleg Sienko. Following the talks, an agreement was concluded to supply 2,900 various freight cars to Azerbaijan.
- Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) CJSC and Turkish Airlines have signed a code-sharing agreement [on joint operation of airlines], Turkish Bigpara newspaper reported.
The code-sharing agreement affects all flights that will be carried out from Azerbaijan to Turkey and vice versa, according to the newspaper.
A code-sharing agreement is an aviation business arrangement where two or more airlines share the same flight. (Sharing in this sense means that each airline publishes and markets the flight under its own airline designator and flight number as part of its published time table/schedule.) A seat can be purchased on each airline's designator and flight number, but is operated by only one of these cooperating airlines, commonly called the operating carrier.
- Metrovagonmash JSC, part of Transmashholding JSC, began supplying new electric trains (81-760B / 761B / 763B) to Baku Metro. The first two trains were supplied to Azerbaijan in late March. Other supply is scheduled for April, the Russian site sdelanounas.ru reported. New trains are intended for the third line of Baku Metro. According to the contract, Baku will receive three trains with five carriages each.
The Azerbaijani transport sector transported 50.4 million tons of cargo in January-March 2015 compared to 49.2 million tons in the same period of 2014, according to the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee's report as of January-March 2015 said.
According to a report, the volume of non-oil cargo increased by 2.8 percent, reaching 33.9 million tons in January-March.
Around 75.6 percent of the total volume of goods transported accounted for the private sector during this period.
Some 54.4 percent of all cargo were transported by vehicles, 32.2 percent - by pipelines, 9.5 percent - by railway and 3.9 percent - by ships.
Some 429.8 million people used passenger transport in January-March, which is 3.8 percent more than in the same period of 2014. Most of the passengers were transported by vehicles (87.2 percent) and metro (12.6 percent).
Automobile transport takes the lion share in the transport field of the country. Some 27.4 million tons of cargo were transported by vehicles, which is 5.6 percent more than in the same period of 2014.
The volume of passenger transportation hit 374.8 million people (a 3.7 percent growth compared to the same period of 2014). Some 96.1 percent of the passengers were transported by buses and 3.9 percent - by cars.
Freight turnover by vehicles increased by 5.1 percent during the reporting period, while passenger turnover - by 3.8 percent.
Some 4.8 million tons of cargo were transported by railway in January-March 2015 which is similar with the same period of 2014.
On average, the number of loaded carriages made up 486 and unloaded - 496. Average daily load of carriages in the northern direction is 20,400 tons and in western direction 5,200 tons and southern direction - 2,400 tons.
Around 2 million tons of cargo were transported by ships during this period compared to 2.4 million tons in the same period of 2014. All cargo accounted for international operations. The volume of goods handled in Azerbaijani ports amounted to 2.7 million tons in January.
Some 70.5 percent of cargo shipping fell to oil and oil products, while 29.5 percent on dry cargo. The volume of international transit cargo handled in the ports hit 94.6 percent. As of April 1, 2015, around 33,800 tons of import cargo left in the ports for transportation.
Some 11.7 million tons of oil were transported via main oil pipelines in January-March or by 2.3 percent more than in 2014. Some 77.9 percent or 9.1 million tons of oil accounted for BTC.
Some 1.9 million tons of Turkmen oil were transported via the BTC in January-March.
Gas transportation via main gas pipelines made up 6.3 billion cubic meters in January-March. Some 29.3 percent of the transported gas fell to the South Caucasus Pipeline. Some 1.8 billion cubic meters of gas were transported via this pipeline.
Some 373,800 passengers were transported by air transport in January-March which is 4.1 percent more than in the same period of 2014. Some 0.3 percent of shipment by this kind of transport fell to private sector.
Some 54.1 million people were transported by metro (a 3.9 percent growth) compared to the same period of 2014.
Some 9.1 million tons of cargo were transported through the Eurasian transport corridor TRACECA (Europe-Caucasus-Asia) through the territory of Azerbaijan in January-February 2015 or by 1.6 percent more than in the same period of 2014, the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee said.
Around 54.1 percent of the total volume of transported cargo fell to vehicles, 31 percent - railway and 14.9 percent - ships.
Some 53.8 million people were transported through the corridor in January-February, which is 7.9 percent more than in the same period of 2014.