Zhukovsky

 

Description of Zhukovsky

Zhukovsky Airport (IATA: ZIA), opened in September 2016, is the newest, smallest, and dirtiest of Moscow's aviation hubs. The terminal building is a pristine glass building decorated with the cheapest materials on the construction market, and the only place to eat is at the Chocolate Girl cafe. From Kazansky train station, transfer to a shuttle bus (fare 100 rubles) to the train station. To take a break, take the direct bus #441e from Kazansky station (fare 85 rubles, less than 70 rubles with discount with card "Arrow").7 Kotelniki (two buses per hour, more frequent during the day on weekdays).

 

Information

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.

 

Name

Initially, the future airport was to be called Ramenskoye. This was due to its location on the Ramenskoye airfield. The prerequisite for the subsequent renaming appeared in 2007, when the administration of the city of Zhukovsky, where the airport is located, launched an initiative to change the name, but it was not implemented at that time. The issue of renaming surfaced again when the airport was opened, and the project name "Ramport" was used during construction; in May 2016, the airport was granted the international code ZIA (Zhukovsky International Airport) by IATA and officially opened; on November 11, 2017, by order of the Russian Federal Government, the name Zhukovsky was officially assigned to the airport. At the same time, in the State Register of Civil Aviation Aerodromes and Heliports of the Russian Federation, the LII airfield still has the name Ramenskoye.

 

History

Project concept

Traditionally, the airfield was used by TsAGI and LII for test and research flights and various aeronautical design bureau operations; in 2012, it became clear that Lamenskoye Airfield could be expanded for use as a commercial airfield for cargo and charter passenger flights. The airfield was included in a project to modernize the airspace structure and air traffic control. The Russian Ministry of Transport, the Moscow Oblast Government, and Russian Railways were instructed to solve the problem of adding a platform at the Otodiv station (on the Dzhukovsky border) in 2012-2013. The construction of a civilian airport at Ramenskoye airfield was supposed to relieve other Moscow airports that were believed to be overloaded with Northern Delivery projects and passengers, especially due to delays in commissioning the new runway. According to some experts, the airport cannot handle more than 13 million passengers per year.

In June 2014, the Rostec State Corporation approved the Lamenskoye International Airport project as an investor. The project is being developed by the Lithuanian-Russian company Lamport Aero, a joint venture between Avia Solution Group Holding and TVK Rossiya, a subsidiary of Rostec; since summer 2015, the low-cost airline, which ceased operations due to Western sanctions It was envisaged that Dobrolyoto would use the airfield, which was to create 280 high-wage jobs by the end of 2015, with the number of employees reaching 2.5 thousand in 2016 and more than 10,000 qualified jobs by 2019.

The first phase of the airport was scheduled to open on March 15-16, 2016, and from that moment the airport would switch to 24-hour operation. The first commercial flights were to be operated by iFly. However, the opening was later postponed until May because the airport operator could not find an airline that could prepare flights from Ramenskoye in a timely manner, and because there was no Russian Federation government decree allowing international flights from the airport.

By Order No. 432-r of the Government of the Russian Federation dated March 15, 2016, Ramenskoye Airport was opened for international flights, and an official opening ceremony was held on May 30, 2016, attended by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

The airport was created within the framework of the "Single Aviation Center for Experimental, National, and Civil Aviation" and was supposed to attract, among other things, additional investments for the further development of this center in the field of experimental aviation. However, in March 2019, JSC Ramport Aero, the operator of Zhukovsky Airport, filed a 162.6 million ruble claim brought by the owner of the airfield, Ramenskoye JSC, Flight Research Institute named after M. M. Gromov The company was named as a defendant in the

 

Construction

According to the International Airport Development Project, the project planned to build two passenger terminals with annual capacity of 2 and 5 million passengers, a 250-room hotel, an office building, an open parking lot with capacity for 1,240 cars and a covered parking lot with capacity for 7,426 cars, and an Aero Express station through 2019 The first phase of the new airport in 2016 was expected to serve 1.7 million passengers and increase passenger traffic to 10.8 million by 2020.

In 2015, the construction of the first passenger terminal with an area of 17.6 thousand square meters took place and the current infrastructure of the Lamenskoye airfield was adapted for civil aviation. The annual passenger traffic of Terminal 1 will reach 2 million passengers. Investments in the first phase of the airport project amounted to more than 1.5 billion rubles ($27 million). Including the construction of the second and third phases of the second passenger terminal, a total of approximately 13 billion rubles was planned to be invested over a five-year period to build more than 240,000 square meters of airport infrastructure. Upon completion of all development stages, the total area of the terminal will be 60,000 square meters and its throughput will increase to 12 million passengers per year.

Since the airspace of Dzhukovsky Airport will intersect with that of Domodedovo Airport, passenger traffic will increase 12-fold.

Project development also includes significant improvements to the region's transportation infrastructure. However, residents of Zhukovsky fear that the development of the airport will worsen traffic conditions due to increased automobile traffic in the city and reduce residents' living comfort due to aircraft noise during the airport's 24-hour operation.

In October 2018, Avia Solutions Group (ASG) sold its stake in the airport operator to Lamport Aero Management.

 

Start of flights

The first airline to announce scheduled service after the restructuring of the air complex was Air Kyrgyzstan; on June 20, 2016, the airline conducted a test flight and was scheduled to begin scheduled service from Zhukovsky to Bishkek and Osh on July 1, 2016. However, at the last minute, the Russian Federal Ministry of Transport removed Zhukovsky from the list of airports in the Moscow Air Hub (MAU), which contradicted the airline's plans, forcing the airline to enter into a new domestic competition to allocate the number of flights to new locations, which Air Kyrgyzstan will Air Kyrgyzstan ceded this number of flights to another Kyrgyz airline, Air Manas.

Kazakhstan's airline SCAT announced plans to offer scheduled passenger service 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 will operate from Zhukovsky Airport to Aktau, Alma-Ata, Antalya, Vienna, Ganja, Baku, Burgas, Tbilisi, Bishkek, Astana, Budapest, Dushanbe, Larnaca, Munich, Osh, Beijing, Plovdiv, Prague, Tel Aviv, Frankfurt am Main, and Fujand.

A short time later, airport manager Lamport Aero announced that daily flights on the Minsk - Hukovsky route by Belavia Airlines would begin on September 12, 2016. The flight from Minsk on the above date was the first scheduled flight accepted by Zhukovsky International Airport.

In 2016, the airport was certified for international passenger transport, and at the same time the first passenger terminal with an area of 17,000 m2 was built. Compared to the main airports of the Moscow Aviation Hub, the airport handles a relatively small number of passengers per year (1 million), but its throughput is much higher. The flight schedule includes only a few scheduled flights to CIS countries and Russian cities. During the tourist season, charter flights are operated from here to popular seaside resorts abroad.

Plans include the construction of a second terminal with a VIP lounge, hotel, multi-story parking garage, office building, and shopping and entertainment center.

 

Controversial Regional Status

The Federal Air Transport Administration classifies Zhukovsky as a regional airport, which gives it the right to unrestricted number of airlines for international flights. Such restrictions apply to all other airports in Moscow in the form of requiring the same number of flights for Russian and foreign airlines. The opening of Ural Airlines' new route from Moscow to Paris was accompanied by a scandal: the first flight on April 28, 2019, was conducted with an intermediate stop at Kaluga, which made the flight several hours longer, delayed some passengers on connecting flights, and promised to sue the company for fraud. According to a representative of Ural Airlines, French aviation authorities did not grant permission for a direct flight because they consider Zhukovsky to be a Moscow airport. The controversy has been a point of contention between Russian and foreign aviation authorities previously, including those in Tajikistan and Israel.

 

Infrastructure

As part of the reconstruction, a new Terminal 1 was constructed by 2016. In addition to the terminal, future plans call for the construction of an international cargo terminal, an aircraft maintenance center, two multi-story parking garages, a hotel, two office centers, a shopping and entertainment center, and many other commercial facilities.

 

Prospects for mixed-use development

Currently, Zhukovsky Airport is in the first phase of development.

The first phase includes the development of the current infrastructure of the Ramenskoye airfield and the construction of a passenger terminal with an area of 17,000 square meters. The terminal will have an annual throughput capacity of 4 million passengers. Phase I will also include the construction of short- and long-term parking facilities.
Phases 2 and 3 will include a significant expansion of passenger terminal 1 and the construction of a second passenger terminal. After successful completion of all development phases, the total area of the terminal will be 60,000 square meters and the annual passenger volume will increase to 12 million passengers.

 

Runways

The airport uses Runway LII, the MM. Gromov runway, which can accommodate all types of aircraft, including Airbus A380s, without any takeoff weight restrictions.

The main runway 12/30 with a length of 5.4 km is the longest in Europe as well as in Russia, and the third longest in the world. Runway 08/26 is awaiting reconstruction and is currently used as a taxiing and parking strip for some aircraft.

The airport will also be equipped with bioacoustic equipment and a propane cannon to scare away birds.