Among the main events in the transport sector are:
- A groundbreaking ceremony for construction of an Azerbaijani-Iranian car plant was held in Azerbaijan’s Neftchala industrial quarter. The plant is a joint project of Azerbaijan’s AzEuroCar LLC and Iran’s giant automaker, Iran Khodro. The total cost of the project is $22.5 million. Twenty percent of the produced cars will be exported. The cars produced at the plant will meet Euro 5 standard.Four Iranian car brands – Dena, Runna, Soren and Samand – will be produced at the new plant, which will have a capacity of 10,000 cars a year.
- A Garamaryam-Ismayilli section of the Garamaryam-Ismayilli-Sheki highway was overhauled within the state program on socio-economic development of Azerbaijani districts in 2014-2018, Azeravtoyol OJSC said. The length of the road of the third technical category is 28 kilometers.
- Russian Red Sormovo plant launched the first tanker as part of RST27 project for Azerbaijan. EXPLORER tanker is the first of two tankers as part of RST27 project which Sormovo Shipyard will build for Caspian Marine Services Limited in 2016-2017. The contract for construction of oil tankers was signed in April 2016. The plant is building the second tanker for Caspian Marine Services Limited.
- Another stage of the operations was launched in Azerbaijan as part of the overhaul of the Baku-Boyuk Kesik railway (border with Georgia). The project implementation was launched in October 2015. More than 145 kilometers of railway were overhauled.
- Azerbaijan’s national air cargo carrier Silk Way Airlines received another new Boeing 747-8F aircraft.
This is the 8th Boeing and 4th Boeing 747-8F aircraft, which will be operated by the airline. Delivery of the new aircraft will enable the airline to increase its route network even broader, including new destinations to the US.
It is planned to open new flights to Chicago and Dhaka along with the existing direct regular flights from the capital of Azerbaijan to Milan, Luxembourg, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Dubai, Seoul, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
- ADY Express company has started to transport cargo via the North-South route, the Azerbaijan Railways CJSC said.
"Despite there is no railway between Azerbaijan and Iran, ADY Express company has been already transporting cargo via this route,” the message said.
“More than 60 of such containers were transported to the north through the territory of Azerbaijan," the message said.
“These containers are transported from Iran to Azerbaijan by trucks,” the message said. “Then the containers are loaded onto the platforms at the Astara railway station and transported to Russia.”
"Previously, these goods were transported from Iran to Russia by sea to the port of Astrakhan,” the message said. “However, according to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s decree, the trucks, registered abroad and transported into the country for transit purposes for further cargo transportation via Azerbaijani railways, were exempt from duties and road tax.”
“A decrease in the cost of cargo transportation through the territory of Azerbaijan has created favorable conditions for the transportation of goods via the country’s transport corridors," the message said.
The Azerbaijani transport sector carried 147 million tons of cargo in January-August 2016 or by 1.2 percent less than in January-August 2015, the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee’s report said.
According to the report, the volume of non-oil cargo increased by 1.9 percent and reached 109.4 million tons.
Around 82.9 percent of the total volume of goods transported accounted for the private sector during this period.
Some 64 percent of all cargo were transported by vehicles, 27.1 percent - by pipelines, 6.4 percent - by railway, 2.4 percent - by ships, 0.1 percent – planes.
Source: Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee
Some 1.234 billion people used passenger transport in January-August 2016, which is 1.9 percent more than in the same period of 2015. Most of the passengers were transported by vehicles (88.4 percent), metro (11.4 percent), other kinds of transport – 0.2 percent.
Automobile transport takes the lion share in the transport field of the country. Some 94.1 million tons of cargo were transported by vehicles, which is 2.8 percent more than in the same period of 2015.
The volume of passenger transportation reached 1.1 billion people (a 2.5 percent growth compared to Jan.-Aug. 2015). Some 96.1 percent of the passengers were transported by buses and 3.9 percent - by cars.
Freight turnover by vehicles increased by 2.8 percent during the reporting period, while passenger turnover - by 2.5 percent.
Some 9.5 million tons of cargo were transported by railway in January-August or by 17.6 percent less than in January-August 2015.
On average, the number of loaded carriages made up 433 and unloaded - 410. Average daily load of carriages in the northern direction is 17,700 tons and in western direction 4,800 tons and southern direction – 1,800 tons.
Around 3.5 million tons of cargo were transported by ships in January-August 2016 or by 24.5 percent less than in January-August 2015. Some 43.4 percent of the transported goods accounted for oil cargo. The volume of goods handled in Azerbaijani ports amounted to 5.54 million tons in January-August.
The volume of international transit cargo handled in the country’s ports reached 93.4 percent. As of September 1, 2016, around 41,100 tons of import cargo left in the ports for transportation.
Over 30 million tons of oil were transported via main oil pipelines in January-August. Some 78 percent or 23.47 million tons of oil accounted for BTC. Some 3.1 million tons of transit oil were transported via the BTC in January-August.
Gas transportation via main gas pipelines made up 13.6 billion cubic meters in January-August 2016 or by 2.6 percent less than in January-August 2015. Some 34.7 percent of the transported gas accounted for the South Caucasus Pipeline. Some 4.72 billion cubic meters of gas were transported via this pipeline.
Some 1.342 million passengers were transported by air transport in January-August which is 6.5 percent more than in January-August 2015. Some 0.1 percent of shipment by this kind of transport accounted for the private sector.
Some 140.3 million people were transported by metro decreasing by 2.7 percent compared to the same period of 2015.
Some 196.7 million passengers were transported through the Eurasian transport corridor TRACECA (Europe-Caucasus-Asia) in January-July 2016 or by 2.3 percent more than in the same period of 2015, the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee said.
Some 28.36 million tons of cargo were transported through TRACECA during the reporting period or by 8.2 percent less than in the same period of 2015, the committee said.
Around 64.3 percent (18.22 million tons) of the total volume of transported cargo accounted for vehicles, 26.7 percent (7.58 million tons) – railway, 9 percent (2.56 million tons) – ships. Some 14.8 percent (4.2 million tons) of cargo accounted for transit.