What is Vnukovo Airport?

Vnukovo International Airport Международный аэропорт Внуково
IATA: VKO - ICAO: UUWW
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		JSC "Vnukovo Airport"
Serves		Moscow
Elevation AMSL		686 ft (209 m)
Coordinates
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	ft	m
02/20 Closed	10,039	3,060	Concrete
06/24	9,842	3,000	Concrete
Statistics (2006)
Number of Passengers			4,800,000

Vnukovo International Airport (Russian: Международный аэропорт Внуково) (IATA: VKO, ICAO: UUWW), is an international airport located 28 km (18 mi) southwest from the center of Moscow, Russia. It is one of three major airports serving Moscow (along with Domodedovo International Airport and Sheremetyevo International Airport). The airport handled 5.12 million passengers in 2006.

Vnukovo is the oldest of the operating airports in Moscow. The construction was approved by the Soviet government in 1937, since the older Khodynka Airport (located much closer to the city centre and closed by 1980s) was overloaded. Vnukovo was opened on July 1, 1941. During the Great Patriotic War it served as a military airbase, and then the passenger service started.

The airfield has two intersecting runways of 3000 m and 3060 m in length. Each runway is 60 meters wide with 10-meter wide safety shoulders on each side. The runway's joint capacity is 60 aircraft movements per hour. The airport has two passenger terminals (International terminal B and domestic terminal 2), one general aviation terminal (for charter business flights), one cargo terminal and 60 aircraft stands. The airport can handle a maximum number of 3,000 passengers per hour. 4,000 people are employed at the airport. The Tupolev rework facility is also located at Vnukovo.

A VIP hall was equipped at Vnukovo Airport, and it is used by many political leaders and important people visiting Russia. The Russian President also uses the VIP facility at Vnukovo Airport.

History

Vnukovo Airport was used for military operations during the Second World War. The airport became a civilian airport after the war. On September 15, 1956, the Tupolev Tu-104 jetliner carried out its first passenger flight from Moscow Vnukovo to Irkutsk via Omsk.

On November 4, 1957, the Romanian Workers' Party, comprising the most prominent politicians of Communist Romania (Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Chivu Stoica, Alexandru Moghioroş, Ştefan Voitec, Nicolae Ceauşescu, Leonte Răutu, and Grigore Preoteasa), was involved in an accident at Vnukovo Airport; Preoteasa, who was Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time, was killed, as was the aircraft's crew. Several others were seriously injured.

The first passenger flight of Ilyushin IL-18 (Moscow to Alma-Ata, on April 20, 1956) and Tupolev Tu-114 (Moscow to Khabarovsk on April 24, 1961) were also carried out from Vnukovo Airport. In 1980, Vnukovo Airport was expanded because of the 22nd Summer Olympic Games. In 1993, Vnukovo Airport became a joint-stock company.

Future expansion

A massive reconstruction and strategic development program commenced at Vnukovo International in late 2003, following the transfer by the Federal Government of the controlling stake in the airport to the Government of Moscow.

The prospective development program is intended to last until the year 2015 and is aimed at transforming Vnukovo International into a highly competitive air transportation hub of international significance. One that would offer a comprehensive range of quality services to both its passengers and tenant carriers.

As part of the Airport Strategic Development Plan the following projects have been completed at Vnukovo International between 2003 and 2005:

April 2004: New Terminal B was opened. The terminal currently handles international passengers whereas in the future it shall be converted to handle domestic flights or fulfill any other dedicated function to be determined at a later date. The Terminal’s total floor space offering stands at 80,000 square meters allowing for the annual passenger throughput capacity of four million.

August 2005: Vnukovo Express was opened: an inter-modal, direct speed line connecting Vnukovo Airport with Moscow's Kiev railway station was launched. The travel time from Kiev station to Vnukovo airport with the new speed express train is 35 minutes.

A new international passenger Terminal A (due to be completed in 2008) will have a total floor space offer of 201,000 square meters and passenger throughput capacity of 7800 pax. per hour, adding up to 20-22 million passengers to be served by the Airport annually. This will open up a plethora of opportunities for the tenant airlines to expand and radically improve the quality of their customer service at the Airport and ensure the introduction of international-quality service and comfort overall. The sprawling terminal building will be located on the site of the existing domestic passenger terminal and will also serve as a springboard for the subsequent development of the entire adjacent landside area both next to the Terminal and farther out toward Vnukovo Settlement. The oldest of the Vnukovo passenger terminals dating back to 1941 will be dismantled by the time the construction of the new one goes ahead (it started to be dismantled in November 2005). The existing Domestic Terminal 2 built in the late 1970s will continue in operation until its eventual dismantling during the last phase of construction and replacement with the new terminal.

The expansion plans include lengthening one of the two V-shaped runways (3,000m and 3,060m long) to 3,800m and upgrading the instrument landing system from the present CAT II to CAT III. Of the three Moscow airports, Vnukovo is the highest, 204m above sea level, and hence in case of fog it has frequently served as an alternate airport. Apart from this, the operators like to stress the fact that, due to its geographic position, the flying time for Western airlines is 10 to 20 minutes shorter than to the other Moscow airports, Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo, which means that each aircraft flying from Vnukovo will burn less fuel. The existing taxiways are to be extended as part of the expansion and new ones will also be built, along with a brand new control tower, an extension to the cargo terminal and a multi-storey car park.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger airlines

'''As of October 2007, the following airlines operate scheduled passenger flights to Vnukovo International Airport:[1]
Airline	Destinations
Aeroflot-Don	Grozny, Istanbul, Rostov-on-Don
Alania Airlines	Vladikavkaz
Alrosa Mirny Air Enterprise	Mirny, Polyarny
Armavia	Yerevan
Atlant-Soyuz Airlines	Antalya, Baikonur, Barcelona, Brno, Hurghada, Monastir, Novokuznetsk, Pardubice, Perm, Sharm el Sheik, Sochi, Thessaloniki, Tivat
Dagestan Airlines	Grozny, Istanbul, Makhachkala, Nazran
Elbrus-Avia	Nalchik
Gazpromavia	Belgorod, Belgrade, Beloyarsky, Nadym, Novy Urengoy, Nukus, St Petersburg, Sochi, Sovetsky, Tivat
Germanwings	Berlin-Schönefeld, Cologne/Bonn, Hamburg, Stuttgart
Ilyich-Avia	Mariupol
Kavminvodyavia	Agadir, Antalya, Mineralyne Vody, Sharm el Sheik, Stavropol, Surgut
Kirov Air Enterprise	Kirov
Kuban Airlines	Anapa, Kaliningrad, Krasnodar, Sochi
Motor Sich Airlines	Zaporozhye
Orenburg	Cheboksary, Orenburg
Red Wings Airlines	Istanbul
Rossiya	Anapa, Bologna, Kos, Nadym, Novy Urengoy, Omsk, St Petersburg, Sochi, Tel Aviv
RusLine	Aktobe, Elista, Kurgan, St Petersburg
Saravia	Pskov
Severstal Air Company	Cherepovets
Sky Express	Ekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Murmansk, Rostov-on-Don, St Petersburg, Sochi, Tyumen
UTair	Anapa, Belgorod, Donetsk, Kazan, Kaliningrad, Khanty-Mansiysk, Kharkov, Kursk, Lviv, Magnitogorsk, Nakhichevan, Nizhnevartovsk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Nikolaev, Noyabrsk, Nyagan, St Petersburg, Samara, Simferopol, Sochi, Sovetsky, Surgut, Syktyvkar, Tyumen, Usinsk, Ufa, Ukhta
Vladivostok Air	Abakan, Istanbul, Kemerovo, Krasnodar, Sochi, Vladivostok
Volga-Dnepr Airlines	Ulyanovsk
Vologda Aviation Enterprise	Vologda
Yakutia Airlines	Krasnodar, Rimini, Sochi, Yakutsk

Cargo airlines

• Grizodubova Air Company (Abakan)

External links

• (English) Vnukovo International Airport official website
• (Russian) Vnukovo International Airport official website
• World Aero Data airport information for UUWW
• NOAA/NWS current weather observations
• ASN Accident history for UUWW
• Historical weather records for Vnukovo

•  • [ e] Intercity passenger transport in Moscow
Airports
Sheremetyevo | Domodedovo | Bykovo | Ostafievo | Vnukovo
Rail terminals
Belorussky | Kazansky | Kiyevsky | Kursky | Leningradsky | Paveletsky | Rizhsky | Savyolovsky | Yaroslavsky
River terminals	Bus terminals
North River Terminal | South River Terminal	Central Bus Terminal

•  • [ e] Airports in Russia

Abakan Adler/Sochi Aldan Amderma Anadyr Anapa Arkhangelsk Astrakhan Barnaul Baykit Belgorod Biysk Blagoveschensk Bratsk Bugulma Cheboksary Chelyabinsk Chita Chokurdakh Chulman Dikson Elista Grozny Igarka Irkutsk Izhevsk Kaliningrad Kazan Kazan-2 Kemerovo Khabarovsk Khanty-Mansiysk Kirov Kogalym Kotlas Krasnodar Krasnoyarsk Kurgan Kyzyl Magadan Magdagachi Magnitogorsk Makhachkala Mineralnye Vody Mirny Moscow-Bykovo Moscow-Domodedovo Moscow-Ostafievo Moscow-Sheremetyevo Moscow-Vnukovo Murmansk Nadym Nalchik Naryan-Mar Nizhnekamsk Nizhnevartovsk Nizhny Novgorod Norilsk Novokuznetsk Novosibirsk Novy Urengoy Noyabrsk Nyagan Okhotsk Omsk Orenburg Orsk Penza Perm Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Petrozavodsk Pevek Podkamennaya Tunguska Polyarny Provideniya Pskov Rostov-on-Don Saint Petersburg Salekhard Samara Saratov Sovetsky Solovki Stavropol Surgut Syktyvkar Tiksi Tomsk Tura Turukhansk Tyumen-Plekhanovo Tyumen-Roschino Ufa Ukhta Ulan-Ude Ulyanovsk Uray Usinsk Velikiy Novgorod Vladikavkaz Vladivostok Volgograd Vorkuta Voronezh Yakutsk Yaroslavl Yekaterinburg Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk

References