Some events related to transport sector of Azerbaijan during the reporting period:
- Azerbaijan initiated the creation of a Coordination committee for the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), Nadir Azmammadov, head of press service of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, said. Chairman of Azerbaijan Railways Javid Gurbanov made the relevant proposal, which will allow to boost the development of this route, during the trilateral meeting with the President of Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov and the Head of the Iranian Railways Mohsen Pour Seyed Aghaei within the 11th International Rail Business Forum in Sochi (Russia). The North-South transportation corridor is meant to connect northern Europe with south-eastern Asia. It will serve as a link for connecting the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia. At the initial stage, it is planned to transport 5 million tons of cargo via the North-South corridor per year and to increase this figure to over 10 million tons in the future.
- Two cargo trains, which will become part of the international railway project 'Viking', will be sent to the Georgian port of Poti from China through the territory of Azerbaijan in late July - early August 2016 as part of the North-South Project, Javid Gurbanov, head of the Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, said. He said that major logistics company DHL will be involved in cargo transportation. "Two trains will be sent from China to Kazakhstan's Dostyk station in late July-early August 2016," Gurbanov said. "From there, the trains will arrive in the Georgian port of Poti via the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, that is, across the sea and the territory of Azerbaijan." "There the cargo will be distributed according to its destination," he added. "Some part of the cargo will be sent to the Baltic countries within the route of international railway project 'Viking'." The piggyback 'Viking' train project was launched in 2003. The project's participants are Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia and Bulgaria. Later, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey joined the project. The total length of the Ilyichevsk (Ukraine)-Minsk (Belarus)-Draugyste (Lithuania) route is 1,766 kilometers. In February 2016, Ukraine and Lithuania signed a memorandum on the accession of the container train 'Viking' to the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route from Europe to China through Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
- The first cargo train from India to Russia passing through the territory of Azerbaijan will be launched in late August 2016 as part of the North-South Project, Javid Gurbanov, head of the Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, said. "The freight train will take off from India's Mumbai city, then it will be transported by ferry to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas in late August," he added. "Then by railway the train will arrive in Iran's Rasht city." Gurbanov added that the goods will be transshipped to trucks in Rasht city and delivered to Azerbaijan's Astara city. Gurbanov also stressed that then the cargo will be delivered to Moscow by railway from Astara city. "This multimodal transportation will be carried out together with the railways of Azerbaijan and Russia," he said.
- China Southern Airlines Company will start to carry out flights on the route Baku-Urumqi-Guangzhou from July 3, 2016, said the company's representative in Baku. The representative said China Southern operates on the Azerbaijani market for 10 years and have decided to connect Baku with a large number of cities in China and Southeast Asia.
- Azerbaijan and Belarus agreed to provide their airlines with extra opportunities for implementing airfreights between the two countries, said Azerbaijan’s State Civil Aviation Administration in a message posted on its website. Negotiations were held on the issue in Baku between the Azerbaijani and Belarusian delegations. “During the negotiations, the parties discussed the bilateral cooperation in air transportation,” said the message. The two sides also agreed to grant code-sharing right for designated airlines.
Some 916.9 million passengers were transported in Azerbaijan in the first half of 2016 or by 1.9 percent more than in the same period of 2015, according to the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee’s report.
The Azerbaijani transport sector carried 106.9 million tons of cargo or by 2.3 percent less than in January-June 2015.
According to the report, the volume of non-oil cargo increased by 0.9 percent for the year, reaching 78.6 million tons in January-June 2016.
Around 82.4 percent of the total volume of goods transported accounted for the private sector during this period.
Some 62.8 percent of all cargo were transported by vehicles, 28.1 percent - by pipelines, 6.6 percent - by railway, 2.4 percent - by ships, 0.1 percent - planes.
According to the report, about 916.9 million passengers were transported by passenger modes of transport in January-June 2016, which is by 1.9 percent more than in the same period of 2015. The main part of passengers (87.9 percent) was transported by vehicles and 11.9 percent by subway.
Automobile transport takes the lion share in the transport field of the country. About 67.1 million tons of cargo were transported by vehicles during the reporting period, which exceeds the same period of 2015 by 2.8 percent.
Some 805.9 million people were transported by vehicles during the reporting period (an increase by 2.5 percent as compared to January-June 2015); 96.1 percent of passengers were transported by buses, 3.9 percent – by vehicles.
Freight turnover by vehicles increased by 2.8 percent during the reporting period, while passenger turnover - by 2.5 percent.
Some 7 million tons of cargo were transported by railway in January-June or by 20.4 percent less than in January-June 2015.
On average, the number of loaded carriages made up 426 and unloaded - 397. Average daily load of carriages in the northern direction is 17,400 tons and in western direction 4,700 tons and southern direction – 1,800 tons.
Around 2.63 million tons of cargo were transported by ships during this period that is 27.5 percent less than in January-June 2015. Some 45.2 percent of the transported goods accounted for oil cargo. The volume of goods handled in Azerbaijani ports during this period amounted to 4.1 million tons.
The volume of international transit cargo handled in the ports accounted to 92.4 percent. As of July 1, 2016, around 38,600 tons of import cargo were left in the ports for transportation.
Some 22.6 million tons of oil were transported via main oil pipelines in January-June. Some 77.9 percent or 17.6 million tons of oil accounted for BTC.
Some 2.3 million tons of transit oil were transported via the BTC in January-June.
Gas transportation via main gas pipelines made up 10.37 billion cubic meters in January-June 2016 or by 8.8 percent less than in January-June 2015. Some 34.6 percent of the transported gas fell to the South Caucasus Pipeline. Some 3.59 billion cubic meters of gas were transported via this pipeline.
Moreover, 799,900 passengers were transported by planes in January-June 2016, which is by 0.1 percent less than in the same period of 2015. Some 0.2 percent of air traffic accounted for private sector during the reporting period.
Some 109.3 million people were transported by subway during the reporting period, which is by 2.6 percent less than in January-June 2015.
TRACECA (Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia) transported 19.81 million tons of cargo through Azerbaijan’s territory in January-June 2015 or by 10.8 percent less than in the same period of 2015.
Some 63.8 percent (12.65 million tons) of the total volume of transported cargo accounted for vehicles, 27 percent (5.35 million tons) - railway and 9.2 percent (1.81 million tons) – ships.