Prospects for the Development of Kurumoch International Airport (Samara) in the Context of Macroeconomic Instability

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The fundamental goal of the research is to analyze the route network of the Kurumoch airport (Samara) and determine the percentage of flights of classic and budget airlines. Analysis of the structure of the route network of Kurumoch airport allowed us to conclude that the share of budget airlines remains at an extremely low level. Low-cost airlines operate only two international flights from the airport. There are no low-cost airlines in the structure of the domestic route network. Analysis of the route network of the airport in Voronezh, which is comparable to Samara airport in terms of passenger traffic, proved that the number of low-cost airline destinations is only 6,67 %. The data from the analysis of the route network of airports in the North Caucasus Federal district, where the share of destinations of budget airlines is from 6,67 % to 62,50 %, served as evidence of the growth of passenger traffic at airports that actively develop cooperation with budget airlines. A significant number of airports in the North Caucasus Federal district, based on the results of operations in 2018, showed high passenger growth rates. The hypothesis of the research is the assumption that the development of low-cost air carriers in the structure of Kurumoch airport (Samara), in the conditions of overcoming the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, can serve as the main factor of growth and development. The author of the study presents the data from the analysis of the route network of the two largest budget airlines in Europe: «Ryanair» and «EasyJet» in the structure of the airport of Bordeaux (France). The share of European budget airlines in the structure of the route network of regional airports in France ranges from 30 % to 80 %, which allows regional airports to demonstrate high passenger traffic. A significant share of low-cost airlines flights is made up of short-and medium-length flights (from 500 to 1 000 km), which allows us to achieve high performance indicators of the aircraft fleet, which is a fundamental factor in the strategy of low-cost airlines. The result of the study is the conclusion that the development of low-cost airline destinations can become a key driver for the development of regional airports in Russia. As a justification for the conclusion, the author presents a model for the development of promising destinations for budget airlines and provides data on the possible growth of annual passenger traffic at Kurumoch airport (Samara) when opening destinations for low-cost airlines.