Ust-Ilimsk Airport is a large 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 17 km northwest of

Ust-Ilimsk Ust-Ilimsk ( rus, Усть-Илимск, p=usʲtʲ ɪˈlʲimsk) is a town in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Angara River. Population: 53,000 (1977). History An '' ostrog'' (fortress) was built on the present site of the town in the 1 ...

. It was a major regional facility capable of handling all sizes of airliners. The airport has a very large concrete

apron An apron is a garment that is worn over other clothing to cover the front of the body. The word comes from old French ''napron'' meaning a small piece of cloth, however over time "a napron" became "an apron", through a linguistics process cal ...

with 500 x 200 M tarmac. The airport was closed in 2001 due to bankruptcy, but reopened in 2013 for flights to Irkutsk. Because of the smaller aircraft needed for the short length of flight to that destination, the operational runway area was reduced to 1000 metres. On the airport location a module passenger building with security block and flight control center have been installed to enable ground operations which were not possible in the earlier-destroyed buildings.

History

Airport started off in 1980. * 1980 - First flight Ust-Ilimsk - Irkutsk with

Yakovlev 40 The Yakovlev Yak-40 (russian: Яковлев Як-40; NATO reporting name: Codling) is a regional jet designed by Yakovlev. The trijet's maiden flight was in 1966, and it was in production from 1967 to 1981. Introduced in September 1968, the Yak ...

. * 1988 - First

Tupolev 154 The Tupolev Tu-154 (russian: Tyполев Ту-154; NATO reporting name: "Careless") is a three-engined, medium-range, narrow-body airliner designed in the mid-1960s and manufactured by Tupolev. A workhorse of Soviet and (subsequently) Russian ...

landed. * 1989. = Hotel was built. * 1993 - New passenger building started off * 1994 - First

Boeing 757-200 The Boeing 757 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the Boeing 727, 727 (a trijet), received its first orders in August 1978. ...

landed in the airport location * 1995 - First in Syberia passenger boarding bridges appeared * 1997 - Runway was increased to 3100 metres by Yugoslavia specialists. * 2001 - Last passenger flight to Irkutsk city. * 2001 - Last cargo flight In 2002 airport was closed after its debts reached 40 million rubles. In 2005 airport went into bankruptcy.Аэропорт в Усть-Илимске «вылетел в трубу» / Газета «Восточно-Сибирская правда»
/ref> All airport infrastructure was destroyed. Rebuilding will require much money. Part of the property was sold during bankruptcy, and part was given to Ust-Ilimsk city. Security was absent since 2002, all other property was stolen.
Reanimation of airport was discussed a lot of times by Moscow companies,

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding m ...

. But the companies declined. * 2013 - New company State enterprise "Runaway" was officially registered riginal document - МУП «Посадочная площадка (Аэропорт) города Усть-Илимска»* 2013 - The local Parliament of Ust-Ilimsk declared the airport infrastructure as city property. [originally - № 57/392 "О принятии недвижимого имущества из муниципальной собственности муниципального образования «Усть-Илимский район» в муниципальную собственность муниципального образования «город Усть-Илимск» объекты аэропорта были приняты в собственность города.] On August 13, 2013 flights to Irkutsk resumed and the airport's eleven-year dormancy ended.

Airlines and destinations

External links

References

Airports built in the Soviet Union Airports in Irkutsk Oblast {{Russia-airport-stub