A number of important events occurred in the Azerbaijani transport sector in April 2017:
The representatives of the Azerbaijani, Georgian and Kazakh railways signed the protocol of the meeting of the Commonwealth of Legal Entities of the International Association "Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor" in Baku. The sides approved the regulation on membership in the Commonwealth, the regulation and composition of the working group for the development of the transport corridor, the plan of actions for 2017, the charter of the Commonwealth, its logo and other issues.
The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route stretches through China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and through Turkey and Ukraine - to Europe.
Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company and Kazakhstan Railways JSC are establishing a joint venture which will operate in the field of cargo transportation along the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TMTM), the shipping company said.
The joint venture will be established on a parity basis: 50 percent of shares belong to Azerbaijan, the rest - to Kazakhstan.
An official ceremony of arrival of a new Boeing 747-8F aircraft, which belongs to the Azerbaijani cargo airline Silk Way Airlines, was held at Heydar Aliyev International Airport.
The aircraft arrived became already the tenth aircraft of the Boeing type for Silk Way Airlines and the fifth Boeing 747-8F, which will be operated by the airline.
With the expansion of the fleet of aircrafts, Silk Way Airlines plans to open new flights to Tokyo, Djibouti, Nairobi and Dhaka along with the existing direct regular cargo flights from Azerbaijani capital to the cities of New York, Chicago, Milan, Luxembourg, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Dubai, Seoul, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Azerbaijan’s Silk Way Airlines has carried out the first cargo flight from Baku to Djibouti, which has become the beginning of a big program on the implementation of weekly regular flights between the two countries.
Meanwhile, countries of Eastern and Central Africa have opened their doors for Azerbaijan, said the company’s press service.
Azerbaijan’s Silk Way Airlines and the US aerospace company Boeing have signed a contract for the purchase of ten passenger aircraft Boeing-737 MAX.
Total cost of the contract is about $1 billion.
The first two aircraft of the newest generation will be delivered to Azerbaijan by the end of 2018, and the rest – until the end of 2020.
Some 67.9 million tons of cargo were carried by Azerbaijani modes of transport in January-April 2017 or by 2.8 percent more than in January-April 2016, the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee’s report said.
According to the report, the volume of non-oil cargo increased by 5.2 percent and reached 49.8 million tons.
Around 87.6 percent of the total volume of goods transported accounted for the private sector during the reporting period.
Some 59.6 percent of all cargo were transported by vehicles, 29.1 percent - by pipelines, 7.5 percent - by railway, 3.7 percent - by ships, 0.1 percent – planes.
Some 610.3 million people used passenger transport in January-April 2017, which is by 2.5 percent more than in January-April 2016. Most of the passengers were transported by vehicles (87.3 percent), metro (12.4 percent) and the rest part – other modes of transport.
Automobile transport takes the lion share in the transport field of the country. Some 40.5 million tons of cargo were transported by vehicles in January-April 2017, which is by 2.3 percent more than in January-April 2016.
Some 532.9 million people were transported by vehicles in January-April 2017, which is by 1.9 percent more compared to January-April 2016. Some 96.2 percent of the passengers were transported by buses and 3.8 percent - by cars.
Freight turnover by vehicles increased by 2.2 percent during the reporting period, while passenger turnover - by 2 percent.
Some 5.1 million tons of cargo were transported by railway in January-April 2017 or by 10.9 percent more than in January-April 2016.
On average per day, the number of loaded carriages made up 363 and unloaded - 423.
Average daily load of carriages in the northern direction is 13,800 tons, in western direction - 5,200 tons and in southern direction – 900 tons.
Around 2.53 million tons of cargo were transported by ships in January-April 2017 or by 52.6 percent more than in January-April 2016. Some 48.4 percent of the transported goods accounted for oil cargo. The volume of goods handled in Azerbaijani ports amounted to 3.52 million tons in January-April 2017.
The volume of international transit cargo handled in the country’s ports reached 95.7 percent. As of May 1, 2017, 94,400 tons of import cargo left in the ports for transportation.
Some 13.93 million tons of oil were transported via main oil pipelines in January-April 2017. Some 78.1 percent or 10.88 million tons of transported oil accounted for BTC.
Some 2.12 million tons of transit oil were transported via the BTC in January-April 2017.
Gas transportation via main gas pipelines made up 8 billion cubic meters in January-April 2017 or by 9.6 percent more than in January-April 2016. Some 31.8 percent of the transported gas accounted for the South Caucasus Pipeline. Some 2.55 billion cubic meters of gas were transported via this pipeline.
Some 607,500 passengers were transported by air transport in January-April 2017 which is by 27.9 percent more than in January-April 2016. Some 0.1 percent of shipment by this kind of transport accounted for the private sector.
Some 76 million people were transported by metro increasing by 5.8 percent in January-April 2017 compared to January-April 2016.
Some 13.16 million tons of cargo were transported through the Eurasian transport corridor TRACECA (Europe-Caucasus-Asia) in January-March 2017, which is by 11.2 percent more than in the same period of 2016, the committee said.
Some 59 percent of the total volume of transported cargo accounted for vehicles, 27.7 percent – railway, 13.3 percent – ships.
Some 20.7 percent of transported cargo accounted for transit cargo.