Vnukovo International Airport

Vnukovo Airport Аэропорт Внуково
IATA: VKO – ICAO: UUWW VKO Location of airport in Metro Moscow
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		JSC "Vnukovo Airport"
Serves		Moscow
Location		Moscow, Russia
Hub for		Gazpromavia Red Wings Airlines UTair Aviation
Elevation AMSL		209 m / 686 ft
Coordinates		55°35′46″N 37°16′03″E
Website		www.vnukovo.ru
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	m	ft
06/24	3,000	9,842	Concrete
02/20	3,060	10,039	Concrete
Statistics (2010)
Passengers			9,460,000
Aircraft movements			149,400
Source: DAFIF, airport web site

Vnukovo International Airport (Russian: Международный аэропорт Внуково) (IATA: VKO, ICAO: UUWW), is a dual runway international airport located 28 kilometres (17 mi) southwest from the centre of Moscow, Russia. It is one of three major airports serving Moscow (along with Domodedovo International Airport and Sheremetyevo International Airport). In 2010 the airport handled 9.46 million passengers, representing a 22.5% increase over 2009. It is the 3rd busiest airport in Russia.

Vnukovo Airport was opened and used for military operations during the Second World War, but became a civilian facility after the war.

History

President Reagan at Vnukovo in 1988

Vnukovo is the oldest of Moscow's operating airports. Its construction was approved by the Soviet government in 1937, since the older Khodynka Aerodrome (located much closer to the city centre, but closed by the 1980s) was becoming overloaded. Vnukovo was opened on 1 July 1941. During the Great Patriotic War it served as a military airbase; passenger services started after the war.

On 15 September 1956 the Tupolev Tu-104 jetliner made its first passenger flight from Moscow Vnukovo to Irkutsk via Omsk.

On 4 November 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 flights of Ilyushin IL-18 (Moscow to Alma-Ata, on 20 April 1956) and Tupolev Tu-114 (Moscow to Khabarovsk on 24 April 1961) were also made from Vnukovo Airport. In 1980 Vnukovo was expanded because of the 22nd Summer Olympic Games. In 1993 Vnukovo Airport became a joint-stock company.

Vnukovo Airport being renovated, August 2008

A massive reconstruction and strategic development programme 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.

As part of the Airport Strategic Development Plan the following projects were completed between 2003 and 2005.

• April 2004: New Terminal B was opened. The terminal currently handles international passengers, but in the future it will be converted to handle domestic flights or fulfil any other dedicated functions to be determined at a later date. The terminal’s total floor space offering stands at 80,000 sq m, allowing for an annual passenger throughput capacity of four million.

• August 2005: Vnukovo's Aeroexpress rail link was opened.

Location and capacity

Vnukovo airport - Terminal B (international)

Interior of Terminal B at Vnukovo

Operators like to stress the fact that, due to its location 28 kilometres (17 mi) southwest from the centre of Moscow, the flying time for Western airlines is 10 to 20 minutes shorter than to the other Moscow airports, Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo. Thus each aircraft flying from Vnukovo will burn less fuel.^{[citation needed]}

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 alternative airport.

The airfield has two intersecting runways of 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) and 3,060 metres (10,040 ft) in length. Each runway is 60 metres (200 ft) wide, with 10m wide safety shoulders on each side. The joint runway 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 and business flights), one cargo terminal and 60 aircraft stands.

The airport can handle a maximum number of 3,000 passengers per hour, and 4,000 people are employed there. In 2008 the airport handled almost 8 million passengers, representing a 16.7% increase over 2007.

Vnukovo Airport is equipped with a VIP hall, which is used by many political leaders and important people visiting Russia. The Russian President also uses Vnukovo's VIP facility.

The Tupolev airliner rework facility is located at the edge of the airport and major overhaul and modification programmes are carried out in several large aircraft hangars.

Further expansion

The prospective development programme 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 its tenant carriers.

A new international passenger Terminal A will have a total floor space of 250,000 sq m and passenger throughput capacity of 7,800 passengers per hour, making a total capacity of 18–20 million passengers 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 further out towards Vnukovo Settlement. The oldest of the Vnukovo passenger terminals, dating back to 1941, will be demolished by the time 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 demolition during the final phase of construction and replacement with the new terminal.

The expansion plans include lengthening one of the two V-configured runways (3,000m and 3,060m long) to 3,800m and upgrading the instrument landing system from the present CAT II to CAT III. 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.

Transport links

Vnukovo aeroexpress station

Vnukovo's Aeroexpress rail link is an inter-modal, direct, high speed line connecting Vnukovo Airport with Kiyevsky Rail Terminal in Moscow city centre was launched. The journey takes 35 minutes.

Passenger airlines, terminals and destinations

Terminal B is used for international flights, Terminal A for domestic flights and flights to Belarus (starting March 25 some international flights will be moved to new terminal A), Terminal D is used only for domestic flights arrivals from North Caucasus.

Airlines	Destinations	Terminal
AeroBratsk	Bratsk	A
Aerosvit	Kiev-Boryspil, Odessa, Simferopol	B
Alrosa Mirny Air Enterprise	Mirny, Polyarny	A
Armavia	Yerevan	B
Bulgaria Air	Seasonal: Burgas, Varna	B
Dniproavia	Sevastopol, Simferopol	B
Gazpromavia	Belgorod, Beloyarsky, Nadym, Novy Urengoy, Samara, Sochi, Sovetsky, St. Petersburg, Tyumen, Ukhta, Ulyanovsk-Baratayevka	A
Gazpromavia	Nukus Seasonal: Pisa	B
Germanwings	Berlin-Schönefeld [ends 2 June 2012],[citation needed] Cologne/Bonn, Hanover, Stuttgart	B
Grozny Avia	Grozny, Stavropol	A
Grozny Avia	Grozny	D
Hamburg Airways	Braunschweig	B
I-Fly	Charter: Antalya, Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Barcelona, Dubai, Hurgada, Phuket, Rimini, Sharm el-Sheikh	B
Kuban Airlines	Chelyabinsk, Kaliningrad [begins 3 March 2012], Krasnodar, Sochi	A
Kuban Airlines	Nalchik, Vladikavkaz	D
Lufthansa	Berlin-Brandenburg [begins 3 June 2012], Düsseldorf [begins 3 June 2012], Frankfurt [begins 25 March 2012], Hamburg [begins 3 June 2012]	A
Motor Sich Airlines	Zaporizhia	B
Red Wings Airlines	Charter: Agadir, Barcelona, Istanbul-Atatürk, Izmir	B
Rossiya	St Petersburg	A
Severstal Air Company	Cherepovets	A
Syrian Air	Aleppo, Damascus	B
Transaero	Blagoveshchensk [begins May 2012] , Kiev-Zhuliany [begins May 2012], Magadan [begins May 2012], Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky [begins May 2012], Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion [begins May 2012]	TBA
Turkish Airlines	Antalya [begins 25 March 2012], Istanbul-Atatürk [begins 25 March 2012]	A
Turkish Airlines operated by AnadoluJet	Ankara [begins 25 March 2012]	A
UTair Aviation	Anapa, Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Barnaul, Belgorod, Beloyarsky, Cheboksary, Gelendzhik, Irkutsk, Kaliningrad, Kazan, Khanty-Mansiysk, Kirov, Kogalym, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Kurgan, Kursk, Lipetsk, Makhachkala, Magnitogorsk, Mineralnye Vody, Minsk, Murmansk, Naryan-Mar, Nazran, Nizhnekamsk, Nizhnevartovsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Noyabrsk, Nyagan, Omsk, Perm, Rostov-on-Don, St Petersburg, Stavropol, Samara, Sochi, Sovetsky, Surgut, Syktyvkar, Taganrog, Tomsk, Tyumen, Ulyanovsk, Ukhta, Uray, Usinsk, Ufa, Vladikavkaz, Volgograd, Voronezh	A
UTair Aviation	Antalya, Baku, Bratislava, Brno, Bukhara, Donetsk, Dushanbe, Fergana, Ganja, Hannover, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Lenkoran, Lviv, Nakhichvan, Riga, Samarkand, Simferopol, Tallinn, Tashkent, Thessaloniki [begins 11 March 2012], Vilnius	B
UTair Aviation operated by UTair-Ukraine	Kharkiv, Krivyi Rih, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhia	B
UTair Aviation	Makhachkala, Nazran, Vladikavkaz	D
Vologda Aviation Enterprise	Vologda	A
Yakutia Airlines	Anadyr, Blagoveshchensk, Bratsk, Krasnodar, Magadan, Mineralnye Vody, Neryungri, Sochi, Ulan Ude, Yakutsk	A

Cargo airlines

Airlines	Destinations
Grizodubova Air Company	Abakan

Accidents and incidents

• On 16 January 2010, UTair Aviation Boeing 737-500 VQ-BAC departed the runway on landing and was substantially damaged when the nosewheel collapsed.
• On 4 December 2010, South East Airlines Flight 372, which had departed from Vnukovo, lost power to all its engines and made an emergency landing at Domodedovo International Airport. Upon landing the plane overshot the runway resulting in a crash and the death of two of the 168 passengers and crew.

External links

• Vnukovo International Airport official website (English) (Russian)
• Aeroexpress service (English) (Russian)
• Historical weather records for Vnukovo
• Current weather for UUWW at NOAA/NWS
• Accident history for VKO at Aviation Safety Network