Aktau International Airport ( kk, Halyqaralyq Aqtau Äuejaiy), formerly Shevchenko-Central, is an

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries around the world. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports and they must feature longer ...

Mangystau Region Mangystau ( kk, Маңғыстау облысы, Mañğystau oblysy; russian: Мангистауская область, Mangistauskaya oblast) is a Regions of Kazakhstan, region of Kazakhstan. Its capital is Aktau (a seaport), which has a popula ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. It is the primary

serving

Aktau Aktau ( kk, Aqtau, Ақтау , russian: Актау) is a city in Kazakhstan, located on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. Its current name means "white mountain" in Kazakh, which may be due to its cliffs that overlook the Caspian. From 1964 to ...

. The airport is the eighth-busiest international air passenger gateway into

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

, the 50th-busiest airport in the Post-Soviet states, the fourth-busiest airport in

. Aktau International Airport is located northwest of the city of

. The airport features one passenger terminal and one runway. It serves as a focus city for

SCAT Airlines SCAT Airlines, legally PLL SCAT Air Company, is an airline with its head office on the property of Shymkent International Airport in Shymkent, Kazakhstan. It operates services to all of the major cities of Kazakhstan and to neighbouring countries. ...

. The airport is served year-round by

Aeroflot PJSC AeroflotRussian Airlines (russian: ПАО "Аэрофло́т — Росси́йские авиали́нии", ), commonly known as Aeroflot ( or ; russian: Аэрофлот, , ), is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Russia. The ...

Air Astana Air Astana ( kk, Эйр Астана, translit=Eir Astana; russian: Эйр Астана́, translit=) is an airline group based in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It operates scheduled international and domestic services on 64 routes from its main hub, Alma ...

Qazaq Air Qazaq Air ( kk, Qazaq Eir) is a Kazakh airline, which operates scheduled services from its main hub in Nur-Sultan and focuses on domestic flights. QAZAQ AIR is an interregional airline established by Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund JSC on ...

and on a seasonal basis by

Belavia Belavia, formally Belavia Belarusian Airlines ( be, ААТ «Авіякампанія «Белавія»; russian: ОАО «Авиакомпания «Белавиа»), is the flag carrier and national airline of Belarus, headquartered in Minsk ...

and

Sunday Airlines Sunday Airlines is a charter airline in Kazakhstan and a subsidiary of SCAT Airlines. Its main base is Almaty International Airport. History The airline was established and started operations in 2013. Destinations Fleet As of December 2022, t ...

. The facility opened in as Shevchenko-Central and was commonly known as Shevchenko Airport (the airport's current

IATA code IATA codes are abbreviations that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) publishes to facilitate air travel. They are typically 1, 2, 3, or 4 character combinations (referred to as unigrams, digrams, trigrams, or tetragrams, respecti ...

, SCO, is derived from the city's previous name of

Shevchenko Shevchenko (alternative spellings Schevchenko, Ševčenko, Shevcenko, Szewczenko, Chevchenko; ua , Шевченко), a family name of Ukrainian origin. It is derived from the Ukrainian word ''shvets'' ( uk, швець), " cobbler/shoemaker", and ...

Overview

In November 1996 the joint stock company Aktau International Airport was established. The development of the oil industry in the

Caspian region The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia ...

required an increase in freight volumes and a rapid delivery of necessary equipment for the oil industry. This, in turn, led to the need for reconstruction of the airfield and an increase in passenger capacity at the terminal.

Usage

With 1 million passengers passing through in 2018, the airport was the third busiest in Kazakhstan, after

Almaty Airport Almaty International Airport ( kk, Halyqaralyq Almaty Äuejaiy) is a major international airport northeast of Almaty, the largest city and commercial capital of Kazakhstan. It is the busiest airport in Kazakhstan, accounting for 6.42 million ...

and Astana Airport, and was the 50th-busiest airport in the Post-Soviet states.

Operations

Aktau International Airport is used by 6 airlines flying to 14 destinations in 4 countries. The airport is the primary hub of SCAT Airlines. It has one passenger terminal. In 2018, it served 1 023 900 passengers, making it the third-busiest airport in Kazakhstan. The busiest single destination in passenger numbers is Atyrau. It has one

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

designated 12/30 with an

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

surface measuring . The airport is able to accommodate jets the size of the

AN-124 The Antonov An-124 Ruslan (; russian: Антонов Ан-124 Руслан, , Ruslan; NATO reporting name: Condor) is a large, strategic airlift, four-engined aircraft that was designed in the 1980s by the Antonov design bureau in the Ukraini ...

Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022. After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, t ...

Il-76 The Ilyushin Il-76 (russian: Илью́шин Ил-76; NATO reporting name: Candid) is a multi-purpose, fixed-wing, four-engine turbofan strategic airlifter designed by the Soviet Union's Ilyushin design bureau. It was first planned as a commer ...

and lighter, as well as helicopters of all types. However, smaller jets like the

Airbus A319 The Airbus A319 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short- to medium-range, Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body, commercial passenger Twinjet, twin-engine jet airliners manufactured by Airbus. The A319 carries 124 to 156 passengers and has a ...

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two un ...

and

CRJ-200 The Bombardier CRJ100 and CRJ200 (previously Canadair CRJ100 and CRJ200) is a regional jet designed and manufactured by Bombardier Aerospace between 1991 and 2006, the first of the Bombardier CRJ family. The ''Canadair Regional Jet'' (CRJ) pro ...

are more commonly seen there. In 2007, the airport was given a concession period of 30 years to the ATM Group. The contract includes construction of a new passenger terminal. The new terminal was completed in 2009. The capacity was 450 passengers per hour and the total area of , including the area occupied by the VIP and CIP halls. The terminal is equipped with electronic and electromechanical systems. These include passenger telescopic ladders, racks of electronic registration, HVAC (heating and cooling system), FIDS (Alert System departures on the electronic scoreboard), X-ray scanners, CCTV, lifts and escalators.

is based in Aktau and operates flights to Baku, Tbilisi, Moscow and various other Russian cities. Air Astana operates daily flights to Atyrau, Almaty and Nur-Sultan. There are also flights operated by

to Moscow.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter services to and from Aktau:

Cargo

Statistics

Passenger figures

References

{{authority control Airports in Kazakhstan

Airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...