Bratsk Airport (russian: Аэропорт Братск) is an airport in
Irkutsk Oblast
Irkutsk Oblast (russian: Ирку́тская о́бласть, Irkutskaya oblast; bua, Эрхүү можо, Erkhüü mojo) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in southeastern Siberia in the basins of the Angara, Lena, and Nizh ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
located north of
Bratsk
Bratsk ( rus, Братск, p=bratsk) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Angara River near the vast Bratsk Reservoir.
Etymology
The name sounds like the Russian word for "brother" ("", '' ...
. It is a mixed use airfield, providing 32 parking spaces for medium-sized airliners. Bratsk airport serves as a
diversion airport Diversion airports are airports capable of handling a particular ETOPS
ETOPS () is an acronym for ''Extended-range Twin-engine Operations Performance Standards''—a special part of flight rules for one-engine-inoperative flight conditions. The I ...
on
Polar route
A polar route is an aircraft route across the uninhabited polar ice cap regions. The term "polar route" was originally applied to great circle navigation routes between Europe and the west coast of North America in the 1950s.
The Arctic Early ye ...
2.
[Boeing-conducted Airport safety and operational assessments](_blank)
/ref> The airport is described as an international airport, although currently only serves internal flights in Russia.
The 350 IAP (350th Interceptor Aviation Regiment) began in 1984 with a number of Tupolev Tu-128 (Fiddler) aircraft. Bratsk was responsible for air defense of most of the Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
n interior region and depended on the long-range capability of the Tu-128 to cover this vast territory. By the 1990s the unit had been upgraded with MiG-31
The Mikoyan MiG-31 (russian: link=no, Микоян МиГ-31; NATO reporting name: Foxhound) is a supersonic interceptor aircraft that was developed for use by the Soviet Air Forces. The aircraft was designed by the Mikoyan design bureau as a ...
jets. The 350 IAP was disbanded in 2002, following this, a small search and rescue detachment of three An-26 (Curl) transports and three Mi-8 (Hip) helicopters under the command of the 32 OSAP (32nd Otdel’nyy smeshannaya avia polk, or “Independent Composite Aviation Regiment”) based at Yekaterinburg. This detachment had previously been known as 11 APSO. Most of the military barrack blocks and ancillary buildings have now been demolished although the large hangar dating back to the 1980s is still standing.
Currently Bratsk Airport continues to serve a vital civil aviation role as a staging base for cargo flights to Kamchatka
The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and wes ...
. The airport is operated by AeroBratsk
JSC AeroBratsk (russian: АэроБратск) is a minor Russian charter airline headquartered in Bratsk and based at Bratsk Airport,Federal State Unitary Enterprise "State Air Traffic Management Corporation", ''Airline Reference'', Vol. 1, ...
, its major civilian tenant. The airport consistently serves more than 100,000 passengers each year. It is the second largest airport in the Irkutsk
Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and mn, Эрхүү, ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 617,473 as of the 2010 Census, Irkutsk is ...
region.
Airlines and destinations
References
Russian Air Force bases
Soviet Air Force bases
Airports built in the Soviet Union
Airports in Irkutsk Oblast
14th Air and Air Defence Forces Army
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