Vnukovo Airport (IATA: VKO). ☎ Reference: +7 (495) 937-55-55. It is the smallest of the three Moscow airports, Vnukovo is located 15 km south-west of Moscow Ring Road and is more focused on domestic flights. From here flies UTAir, Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, Yakutia, Pobeda.
The advantage of Vnukovo compared to other Moscow airports is that it is located in the middle of residential buildings. In walking distance there are decent places with cheap food (prices are lower than the average in Moscow and not comparable with intra-airport): a cafe at the hotel "Vnukovo" (st. Central / 2 / 1A) and "Dining room №1" (st. 1st Reisovaya 4A). Next to the dining room there is a non-stop supermarket and a round-the-clock stall with shawarma.
Vnukovo consists of a single terminal A, not counting business
aviation and servicing VIPs of various levels, right up to the
President of Russia. This is a relatively new, spacious and in some
places frighteningly deserted building, which is connected by an
underground passage to the Aeroexpress station. In the basement
there is a round-the-clock luggage room (300 rubles per day, 2014),
on the first floor there is an arrival, on the second flight. Apart
from ATMs and similar cafe-bars with heated hot meals, everything
useful is located on the second floor on the right side of the hall:
Just grill, offering quite restaurant food at 400–500 rubles for hot
dishes and more modest Air Buffet - good dining room with
distribution (hot dishes: 300–400 rubles, soups and sandwiches:
about 200 rubles). It is better, however, to go to the deserted
third floor, where the “Little Potatoes” and the Mu-Mu Cafe are
located with prices higher than in the city, but still lower than
throughout the airport - besides, the food here is much more
diverse. On the third floor there are several rows of ever-occupied
seats, and if you don’t get a seat, head to the Territory of Cinema
private cinema: several booths of 2x2 meters with a sofa and a DVD
player each. There is no service for arriving tourists in the
terminal. The tourist information counter sells guidebooks, and not
at all tickets for city transport, as one might think.
On the
second floor, next to the cafe (on the right side of the hall),
there is a communication lounge that provides Internet access from
stationary computers: 150 rubles for 30 minutes or 200 rubles / h
with limited traffic and an additional payment of 1 rubles / Mb
(2013). With wireless Internet access in Vnukovo, things are bad: in
the general Wi-Fi zone they don’t get caught at all, after a special
control, the Air_wifi_free network appears, but only for 15 minutes
- they are asked to pay 50 rubles later. per hour or 150 p. in 6
hours. However, you can search for free network of business rooms.
The international departure hall is huge in disarray: throughout
its most part, you can see only hundreds of rows of empty seats and
closed showcases of inactive duty-free shops. In addition, there are
“Shokoladnitsa”, Burger King, “Mu-mu”, “Little Potato”, Heineken
lounge bar, which turns out to be a dining room with a distribution
and a very expensive bar (beer from 300 rub for a mug), and also a
network cafe with Le Crobag sandwiches. Prices in it are as high as
throughout the airport, but the appearance and contents of these
sandwiches, not to mention baking, compare favorably with the dull
grandson range.
The departure lounge for domestic flights is
not so big and there are more passengers in it, and therefore not so
frightening, although there are still a lot of empty seats. There
are two Chokoladnitsas in it at once, the Grenkipub cafe, Burger
King, Mu-mu, and Halal tavern. For lovers of the exotic, there is an
automatic with “space food”: soups of porridge and mashed potatoes
in tubes (300 rub. Portion). At the very end of the clean area,
poorly visible from a distance, the counter "Crumb-potatoes." There
are practically no outlets, most of them in the “Chocolate
Chocolate”, which is further from the entrance.
How to get there:
Aeroexpress from Kievsky railway station, 35
min; the interval of movement is one hour, that is, less often than
at other Moscow airports
Minibuses № 45m from 1 Yugo-Zapadnaya
run along the filling (every 10-15 minutes during the day, every
half hour in the evening) from 7 to 23. On the way there is 15-20
minutes if there are no traffic jams. The fare: 150 rubles (2016).
Minibuses stop at the entrance to terminal A. Be careful: minibuses
without a number with a sign "Vnukovo" go not to the airport, but to
the village of the same name.
Buses number 611 at city fares from
1 Yugo-Zapadnaya. Because of the probability of getting into a
traffic jam, it is best to sit down at 1 Troparevo. The interval is
about 4 flights per hour. Opening hours - 5:30 - 1:24. The airport
is not final, goes further to the Vnukovo plant. From 6 Warm camp,
572 buses go, but its interval is 1 hour, it takes a very long time.
The best choice is buses from 1 Salaryevo: No. 911 to the final one
or No. 272 to the Hotel stop (corner of Tsentralnaya and 1-I
Reisovaya, 300 m to the terminal). There is also a bus number 32, on
the way to Vnukovo airport making the arrival to 8 Rasskazovka. At
night, route number H11 runs from Vnukovo Airport to the center, to
the final stop 6 7 Kitay-Gorod. The airport has a ticket office
Mosgortrans, often closed.
Minibuses up to 6 Teplyi Stan or along
Leninsky Prospect up to 5 6 Oktyabrskaya - run relatively rarely.
By car on Leninsky Prospekt, the route is usually free except for
the interchange with the Moscow Ring Road
Compared to other
Moscow airports, the grandchild taxi drivers are unobtrusive and
will not catch you with the proposal to take you somewhere
“cheaply”. However, there is no official taxi stand at the airport
either.
Vnukovo is the oldest of the currently operating airports in Moscow.
Its construction began in 1937; the reason was the congestion of the
Central Airport on Khodynskoye Pole (established in 1910) and Bykovo
Airport, established in 1933. In 1937-1938, V.F. Kaminsky was the
customer for the construction of the airport. The construction of the
first objects of the Vnukovo airport took place in 1939-1941. by several
thousand prisoners of Likovlag, a Gulag camp created for the
construction of an airport. The construction of Vnukovo Airport was
designated as "Construction No. 204". The first stage of the airport
facilities was put into operation on July 2, 1941. The name of the
airport is associated with the name of the suburban station of the Kyiv
direction of the Moscow railway and the residential village at the
station, located a few kilometers from the airport.
During the
Great Patriotic War, the Moscow Special Purpose Air Group, the Air Force
Fighter Aviation Regiment, an airborne unit, and the 10th Guards
Transport Division of the Civil Air Fleet were located on the territory
of the airport.
Shortly after the end of the Great Patriotic War,
in September 1945, the country's leadership decided to transfer the
Central Moscow Airport from the airfield named after. M. V. Frunze on
the Khodynka field in Vnukovo.
In December 1946, on the basis of
the 10th Guards Division of the Civil Air Fleet, the 1st separate group
of the Civil Air Fleet (civilian air fleet) was created, and the 19th
Special Purpose Aviation Regiment was transformed into the Air Group of
International Air Communications. Vnukovo Airport became the first
Moscow international airport.
In 1946, an air group for
intra-union transportation and an air group for international
communications were created in Vnukovo, on the basis of which the Moscow
Transport Aviation Administration was formed in 1952.
In
September 1950, the 21st training detachment for the training of flight
specialists for the airport was created.
Many types of aircraft
made their first passenger flights from Vnukovo: Il-12, Il-14, Il-18,
Il-86, Tu-104, Tu-114, Tu-124, Tu-134, Tu-154, Tu- 204 and Tu-204-300.
On September 15, 1956, the first passenger flight took place on a
Tu-104 jet aircraft on the route Moscow (Vnukovo) - Omsk - Irkutsk.
April 24, 1961 - the first passenger flight on a Tu-114 aircraft on
the route Moscow (Vnukovo) - Khabarovsk.
On January 7, 1963, the
Vnukovo United Aviation Squadron was formed on the basis of the flight
and technical divisions of the airport.
On September 29, 1964,
regular flights began on the Tu-134 Moscow - Mineralnye Vody aircraft.
February 19, 1972 - the first passenger flight on a Tu-154 aircraft
on the route Moscow - Mineralnye Vody.
In 1976, in commemoration
of the 20th anniversary of the first passenger flight in the USSR,
performed on a jet aircraft, a Tu-104 memorial aircraft was installed on
the forecourt of Vnukovo Airport. During the reconstruction of the
station square in 2005, the monument was destroyed, and in 2006 it was
restored. At the same time, the board with serial number 921102 that
served as a monument was replaced with another one, with the number
021905, which had previously been stored at the Vnukovo Aircraft Repair
Plant No. 400 (VARZ-400).
On October 25, 1979, technical tests
and subsequent operation of the Il-86 aircraft began.
Since
January 1986, the operation of the Tu-154M passenger aircraft began.
In 1993, by order of the State Property Committee of Russia, on the
basis of the Vnukovo Production Association of Civil Aviation, an open
joint-stock company Vnukovo Airport, later renamed into JSC Vnukovo
Airport, and an open joint-stock company Vnukovo Airlines were created.
In 2001, in accordance with the decision of the Government of Moscow,
OJSC Vnukovo International Airport was established. On November 14,
2003, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree “On the transfer
to the ownership of the city of Moscow of federally owned shares in the
open joint-stock company Vnukovo Airport.
At the beginning of the
21st century, the Moscow government directed significant investments in
the development of the airport, adopting on August 3, 2004 a resolution
“On the Concept for the Development of Vnukovo Airport”, which provides
for a strategic development program for Vnukovo Airport to ensure the
transportation of 20–22 million passengers per year. In particular, on
April 17, 2004, a new international terminal with an area of 24,000 m²
was commissioned with a design capacity of 1,200 passengers per hour; in
March 2000, a new passenger terminal of the business aviation center
"AviaBusinessTerminal Vnukovo-3" was put into operation. In 2009, a new
postal and cargo complex (PGC) was put into operation. On July 6, 2010,
the first flight (Anapa - Moscow) was accepted by the new Terminal A,
designed by the architect L. Borzenkov and designed to serve 25 million
passengers a year (the first stage of the new terminal with an area of
174 thousand m² was put into operation). At the end of June 2011, a
two-level overpass was launched at the station square, which provides
free access for vehicles to the drop-off area for departing passengers.
On December 18, 2012, the second phase of Terminal A was put into
operation, the project of which received a gold medal at the World
Innovation Salon in 2006. The terminal has 52 boarding gates. Since that
day, the air terminal complex has become the largest in Russia in terms
of occupied area (270 thousand m²).
Significant funds were also
invested in airfield equipment. In 2008, a new command and control
center equipped with modern technology began its work. In October 2009,
the reconstruction of Runway No. 2 was completed.
On March 23,
2012, the presentation arrival of the world's largest passenger airliner
Airbus A380 of Lufthansa airlines took place at the airport, and on
April 9 - a passenger aircraft Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
On December
2, 2013, the reconstruction of Runway No. 1 was completed. Its length
was increased by 500 meters, new lighting equipment was installed that
meets the requirements of Category III ICAO. During the repair, from
April 15 to July 1, 2011, the reception and departure of aircraft from
Vnukovo were seriously limited, and the government squadron was
relocated to Sheremetyevo Airport.
In 2015, the filming of the
disaster film The Crew took place at the airport.
In 2017, the
National Booking System was introduced, developed by Vnukovo together
with the Rostec State Corporation, in which $50 million was invested.
The Vnukovo airfield complex has two intersecting runways (runways):
Runway-1, 06/24, 3500×60 m, PCN 34/R/A/W/T, cat. IIIa ICAO;
VPP-2, 01/19, 3060×60 m, PCN 60/F/D/X/T, cat. II ICAO; the top layer of
the coating is asphalt concrete.
Since the summer season of 2006,
Vnukovo Airport has been assigned the third (highest) level of
coordination according to the IATA classification. The capacity of two
runways is 56 takeoffs/landings per hour. Operating mode 24 hours a day.
The airport is allowed to operate all types of domestic aircraft
(Tu-134, Tu-154B, Il-86 - except for night flights from 23:00 to 06:00)
and the main types of Western-made aircraft:
Airbus A300, A310,
A320, A330, A340, A350, A380 (technically);
Boeing B-737, B-747,
B-757, B-767, B-777, B-787;
MD MD-11, MD-80, MD-82
as well as
a large number of types of regional aircraft and business aviation
aircraft.
The apron of the airfield complex is designed for
parking more than a hundred aircraft of various types - from business
aviation aircraft to B-747 or AN-124 ("Ruslan") type liners.
The
airfield complex serves flights of Vnukovo-1 (terminals A, B and D), the
government terminal Vnukovo-2 and the Business Aviation Center
Vnukovo-3.
The air terminal complex "Vnukovo-1" is formed by three passenger
terminals: "A", "B" and "D". The terminals are adjacent to each other.
Terminals "B" and "D" are connected by an internal passage. The
transition from terminal "A" to terminals "B" and "D" is possible only
across the street. The total capacity of AVK Vnukovo-1 after the
commissioning of Terminal A amounted to about 35 million passengers per
year.
Terminal A was opened in July 2010 and was put into
operation in stages. The terminal has 20 gates for domestic flights
(including eight gates equipped with single-arm air bridges and two
gates with double-arm air bridges), as well as 28 gates for
international flights (including 12 gates equipped with single-arm air
bridges, one gate with a two-arm air bridge and one with a three-arm air
bridge for service Airbus A380 aircraft). Further development of
Terminal A involves the construction of a symmetrical left wing on the
site of Terminal D to be demolished. The second phase of the terminal
includes additional check-in islands, expansion of the sterile area of
internal lines, including two new gates and the provision of a through
passage between terminals "A" and "B".
Luggage storage is located
on the ground floor of the terminal. The underground passage under the
railway station square adjoins the minus first floor, which includes an
exit from the underground railway station Vnukovo Airport.
The
first floor is the arrivals area, including baggage claim areas with ten
baggage claim belts (eight for domestic and 5 for international
flights). Also on the ground floor there are unclaimed baggage rooms,
cafes, communication salons, a 24-hour bank branch, ATMs, counters of
transagencies, taxis and car rental services.
The departure area
is located on the second floor of the terminal. An automobile overpass
with free and free passage leads to the departure zone. 140 check-in
desks. The islands are classified according to the airlines operating
the flights. Check-in for domestic and international flights is carried
out at the same counters. Also on the second floor are: cafes and shops,
a game room, a first-aid post, a police station, bank branches, ATMs,
transagency desks, and airline service desks. The sterile area also
houses children's playgrounds, several business lounges, duty-free shops
(international flights) and Duty Paid concept stores (domestic flights).
On the third floor of the terminal there is a waiting room, airline
offices, a cafe, a VIP lounge and a business lounge.
The landing
gallery of the terminal, elongated in the form of a drop, is divided
lengthwise into two approximately equal parts. Domestic flights are
served on the left side, international flights are served on the right.
This separation made it possible to shorten the path of transit
passengers as much as possible. The length of the boarding gallery of
terminal "A" is about 500 m. To facilitate movement along it, a total of
38 travelators are installed along the gallery.
The terminal was
built according to the “smooth floor” system: doors have no thresholds,
transitions between levels are equipped with ramps and elevators.
Terminal A's air conditioning system occupies an entirely separate
building to the right of the terminal, with employee parking located on
the lower level of the building.
Terminal B, equipped with a
boarding gallery with six boarding bridges, was put into operation in
April 2004. The terminal with a total area of 25,000 m² has a capacity
of 2,000 passengers per hour and is capable of serving only
international flights. After transferring the majority of scheduled
international flights to Terminal A, Terminal B has focused on servicing
charter flights, flights of low-cost airlines and destinations to the
countries of Central Asia. Since the spring-summer season of 2016, the
terminal has been decommissioned, all flights from terminal B have been
transferred to terminal A.
Terminal "D" built in the 1980s was
reconstructed (with the replacement of equipment) in 2004-2005. The
total area of terminal "D" is about 30 thousand m², the capacity is 4800
passengers per hour. Currently, the terminal is almost completely
decommissioned, and no flights are made from it. At the same time,
post-flight screening of arriving passengers of certain domestic flights
is carried out in Terminal D. The decision on each flight is made by the
Ministry of Internal Affairs individually. The terminal has several
airline offices and a mother and child room.
One and a half kilometers south of the main passenger terminal
building is the Vnukovo-2 Special Terminal (ICAO: UUWI), serving the
President and members of the Russian Government, as well as leaders and
representatives of governments of other countries. The terminal was
officially put into operation on April 28, 1963, but the first
government flights from Vnukovo began as early as 1956. From the very
beginning, all government transportation was carried out by the "Special
Purpose Aviation Detachment", currently renamed the Rossiya SLO.
In accordance with the decree of the Moscow government of 2004, Vnukovo
Airport had to be rebuilt - Vnukovo-2 was no exception: for example, on
the territory of the second terminal of the airport in the summer of
2009, a new air terminal and a service building with all newly connected
communications were put into operation.
According to the
Vedomosti newspaper, the construction of the new terminal building began
in 2008. A new fence has already appeared on the side of the Kyiv
highway. It is two meters taller than before. The previous fence was a
metal grating, through which motorists passing along the highway could
see the terminal building through the trees. The current fence is made
of sheet metal and is located on a concrete grillage - the new building
cannot be seen from the side of the highway. US President Barack Obama
became the first foreign guest who, in July 2009, used the services of
the new building of the Vnukovo-2 terminal. The motorcade traveled from
Vnukovo-2 to the Kremlin in 15 minutes, while the average speed of the
president's car was about 130 km/h.
In the western part of the airfield, in the immediate vicinity of the
Borovskoye Highway, there are several VIP terminals, united under the
general name "Vnukovo-3":
the Kosmos terminal, owned by the
Russian Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, is used for VIP charters
and business aviation;
the adjacent VVL terminal "Business Aviation
Center", put into operation in 2000, is designed to simultaneously serve
no more than 15 VIP passengers;
International Airport Terminal
"Business Aviation Center", built in 2006, is capable of handling up to
40 passengers per hour.
Vnukovo-3 is used to receive and depart
special flights of city government delegations and guests of the Moscow
Mayor.
In 2015, 34,682 flights were performed in this terminal,
and the passenger traffic amounted to 117,781 people