MOSCOW, July 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Russia will dramatically reduce the number of international airports in the country in several years to optimize the airport network, Transport Minister Igor Levitin said Thursday.

    "Russia now has 70 international airports, which is too much. We don't need this number," Levitin told a press conference, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

    International airports, according to international norms, are to be spaced at least 500 kilometers from one another, but Russia's international airports are distributed unevenly now, Levitin said.

    The Transport Ministry has worked out a blueprint for restructuring the country's airport system, which envisages eight hub airports and around 20 major domestic ones, Levitin said.

    "The hubs will conduct main international transit hauls, while domestic airports will connect the country's cities with hubs," Levitin said, adding airports in Yekaterinburg, Khabarovsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Krasnodar, the Far East and the Moscow area will serve as hubs for air traffic.

    The Transport Ministry is calling for a new law permitting ownership of airports by Russian citizens to ease the burden on the government to bankroll small airports.

    "We want to settle the problem of small airports, which are vitally necessary for the regions. This is especially true of the north, but small airports are short of federal financing," Levitin noted.

    With the restructuring project, the Transport Ministry expects the transit passenger volume via hub airports to increase fivefold to sevenfold to reach 3 to 4 million people every year. Enditem