Zhukovsky Airport (IATA: ZIA). The newest, smallest and most squalid airport of the Moscow aviation hub, opened in September 2016. The terminal building is a primitive glass with the decoration of the cheapest materials from the construction market, and you can only eat at the cafe "Chocolate Girl". There is no direct rail link: you can get from Kazansky railway station with a transfer to the shuttle bus (fare is 100 rubles) to the station. Rest, either by direct bus number 441e (fare 85 rubles, on the card "Arrow" - 70 rubles or less, depending on the discount) from the station. 7 Kotelniki (twice an hour, on weekdays in the daytime more often).
The Ramenskoye airfield is used for test flights of experimental aviation and is controlled by the LII, aircraft of the Russian Emergencies Ministry fly from the airfield, before the opening of Zhukovsky airport, it was also used for international cargo air transportation. Radio call sign of the airfield: Proud. The aerodrome hosts the International Aviation and Space Salon (MAKS) in odd years, and in 2010, 2012, 2014 the International Forum "Engineering Technologies" was held.
Initially, the future airport was to be called Ramenskoye. This is due to its location at the Ramenskoye airfield. The prerequisites for the subsequent renaming appeared in 2007, when the administration of the city of Zhukovsky, where the airport is located, came up with an initiative to change its name, which was not implemented then. The question of renaming arose again at the time of the opening of the airport, during the construction of which the project name Ramport was used. In May 2016, the airport was officially opened with the IATA assignment of the international code ZIA (Zhukovsky International Airport). On November 11, 2017, the name Zhukovsky was officially assigned to the airport by order of the Government of the Russian Federation. At the same time, in the state register of airfields and heliports of civil aviation of the Russian Federation, the LII airfield still has the name Ramenskoye.
Project concept
Traditionally, the airfield was used by TsAGI and
LII for test and research flights, for the work of various aviation
design bureaus. In 2012, it became known about the possible expansion of
the use of the Ramenskoye airfield in civil aviation for cargo and
charter passenger flights. The airfield was included in the project for
the modernization of the airspace structure and air traffic control. The
Ministry of Transport of Russia, the Government of the Moscow Region and
Russian Railways were instructed to work out the issue of building an
additional platform at the Otdyv station in 2012-2013 (a station on the
border of the city of Zhukovsky). The construction of a civil airport at
the Ramenskoye airfield was supposed to relieve other Moscow airports,
which were considered to be overloaded with traffic under the Northern
Delivery programs and passengers, in particular, due to the delay in the
commissioning of new runways. According to some experts, they would not
be able to serve more than 13 million passengers per year.
In
June 2014, the Rostec State Corporation approved the Ramenskoye
International Airport project as an investor. The project is being
developed by the Lithuanian-Russian company Ramport-Aero, a joint
venture between the Avia Solution Group holding and TVK Rossiya, a
subsidiary of Rostec. It was assumed that from the summer of 2015 the
airfield would be used by the Dobrolyot low-cost airline, which stopped
flights due to Western sanctions. By the end of 2015, it was planned to
create 280 highly paid jobs, in 2016 the number of employees will reach
2.5 thousand, and by 2019 more than 10 thousand jobs for qualified
personnel will be created.
The opening of the first phase of the
airport was scheduled for March 15-16, 2016, from the same moment the
airport was supposed to switch to round-the-clock operation. The first
commercial flight was expected to be operated by I fly. However, the
opening was subsequently delayed until May, because the airport operator
did not find airlines ready to fly from Ramenskoye in a timely manner,
and also due to the lack of a decree of the Government of the Russian
Federation that would allow international flights from the airport.
By order of the Government of the Russian Federation of March 15,
2016 No. 432-r, Ramenskoye Airport was opened for international flights,
and on May 30, 2016, its official opening took place, which was attended
by Russian Prime Minister D. A. Medvedev.
The airport was created
within the framework of the “single aviation center for experimental,
state and civil aviation” and, among other things, was supposed to
attract additional investments for the further development of this
center in the field of experimental aviation. However, in March 2019,
the operator of the Zhukovsky airport, JSC Ramport Aero, became a
defendant in a claim for 162.6 million rubles, which was filed by the
owner of the airfield, Ramenskoye JSC, Flight Research Institute named
after M. M. Gromov.
According to the international airport development project, in the
period up to 2019, it was planned to build two passenger terminals with
a capacity of 2 million and 5 million passengers per year, a hotel with
250 rooms, office buildings, an open parking lot for 1240 cars and
covered parking lots with a capacity of up to 7426 cars, and also a
station for Aeroexpress trains. The first stage of the new airport in
2016 was supposed to serve 1.7 million people, and by 2020 the project
assumed an increase in passenger traffic to 10.8 million.
In
2015, the construction of the first passenger terminal with an area of
17.6 thousand m2 was carried out and the current infrastructure of the
Ramenskoye airfield was adapted for civil aviation purposes. The annual
capacity of the first terminal will reach two million passengers a year.
Investments in the project to launch the first phase of the airport
amount to more than 1.5 billion rubles ($27 million). In total, over
five years, it was planned to invest about 13 billion rubles in the
airport for the construction of over 240 thousand square meters of
airport infrastructure, including the construction of a second passenger
terminal at the second and third stages. After completion of all stages
of development, the total area of the terminals will be 60,000 m2, and
their throughput will increase to 12 million passengers per year.
However, there are other estimates: due to the fact that the air
zone of Zhukovsky airport intersects with the zone of Domodedovo
airport, passenger traffic will be 12 times more modest.
The
development of the project includes a significant improvement of the
transport infrastructure in the area. However, residents of the city of
Zhukovsky are afraid that the development of the airport will lead to a
deterioration in the transport situation due to an increase in car
traffic within the city, as well as a decrease in the comfort of living
for residents due to aircraft noise during the round-the-clock operation
of the airport.
In October 2018, Avia Solutions Group (ASG) sold
its stake in the airport management company to Ramport-Aero management.
Start of flights
The first airline to announce the implementation
of regular flights after the reconstruction of the air complex was Air
Kyrgyzstan. On June 20, 2016, the carrier was supposed to carry out a
test flight, and from July 1, 2016, to start servicing regular flights
from Zhukovsky to Bishkek and Osh. However, at the last moment, the
plans of the airline were violated by the Ministry of Transport of the
Russian Federation, excluding Zhukovsky from the list of airports of the
Moscow Air Hub (MAU), which, in turn, forced the carrier to go through a
new national competition for the allocation of flight frequencies to a
new point, in which Air Kyrgyzstan conceded this frequency to another
Kyrgyz carrier - Air Manas.
The Kazakh airline SCAT announced its
plans to carry out regular passenger transportation to Shymkent, Aktobe,
Aktau and Astana in the near future.
According to the orders of
the Federal Air Transport Agency dated July 27, August 22 and August 26,
2016, VIM-Avia, Nordavia, Ural Airlines and Yamal were granted
permission to fly from Zhukovsky Airport to Aktau, Alma-Ata, Antalya,
Astana , Baku, Bishkek, Budapest, Burgas, Vienna, Ganja, Dushanbe,
Larnaca, Munich, Osh, Beijing, Plovdiv, Prague, Tbilisi, Tel Aviv,
Frankfurt am Main, Khujand.
A little later, the airport manager,
Ramport Aero, announced the start of daily flights on the
Minsk-Zhukovsky route by Belavia airlines starting from September 12,
2016. The flight from Minsk, which took place on the above-mentioned
day, became the first regular flight accepted by Zhukovsky International
Airport.
In 2016, the airport was certified for international
passenger traffic, at the same time the first passenger terminal with an
area of 17,000 m2 was built. Compared to the major airports of the
Moscow air hub, the flow of travelers here is relatively small: up to 1
million passengers per year, although its throughput is much higher. The
flight schedule includes only a few regular flights to the CIS countries
and cities in Russia. During the tourist season, charter flights to
popular foreign seaside resorts are carried out from here.
The
plans include the construction of a second terminal with VIP lounges, a
hotel, a multi-level car park, office buildings, and a shopping and
entertainment center.
Controversial regional status
The
Federal Air Transport Agency classifies Zhukovsky as a regional airport,
which gives the right not to limit the number of carriers on
international flights, such a restriction applies to all other Moscow
airports in the form of a requirement for the same number of flights for
Russian and foreign airlines. The launch of a new Ural Airlines route
from Moscow to Paris was accompanied by a scandal. The first flight on
April 28, 2019 was carried out with an intermediate stop in Kaluga,
which lengthened the flight by several hours, some passengers were late
for connecting flights and promised to sue the company, accusing it of
fraud. A representative of Ural Airlines said that the French aviation
authorities attributed Zhukovsky to Moscow airports, and therefore
refused to give permission for a direct flight. Previously, this
controversial status has repeatedly become the subject of conflict
between Russian and foreign aviation authorities, including those of
Tajikistan and Israel.
As part of the reconstruction, a new first terminal was built by
2016. In the future, in addition to the terminals, it is also planned to
build a number of commercial facilities, such as an international cargo
terminal, an aircraft maintenance center, two multi-storey car parks, a
hotel, two office centers, and a shopping and entertainment center.
Prospects for the development of the complex
At the moment,
Zhukovsky Airport is at the first stage of development.
The first
stage includes the development of the current infrastructure of the
Ramenskoye airfield and the construction of a passenger terminal with an
area of 17,000 m2. The annual throughput of the terminal will reach 4
million passengers per year. The first stage also includes the
construction of short-term and long-term parking lots.
At the second
and third stages, it is planned to significantly expand the first and
build the second passenger terminal of the airport. After the successful
completion of all stages of development, the total area of the terminals
will be 60,000 m2, and their capacity will increase to 12 million
passengers per year.
Runways
The airport uses the runway LII
them. MM. Gromov and is able to receive any type of aircraft without
takeoff weight restrictions, including the Airbus A380.
The main
runway 12/30 with a length of 5.4 km is the longest not only in Russia,
but also in Europe and the third longest in the world. The dimensions of
the working part of runway 12/30 are 4600×70 m. Runway 08/26 is awaiting
reconstruction, and is currently used as a taxi and parking strip for
some aircraft.
Additional bioacoustic installations and propane
guns to scare away birds will be installed at the airport.