Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Sokol Airport is the main gateway for Magadan in Russia's Far East, lying in the settlement of Sokol some 50 km north of the city it serves. It is a substantial paved-runway field with an ILS approach, long associated with Aeroflot's historic Trans-Siberian and trans-Pacific routes, and now home to a modern passenger terminal opened in December 2024.
Sokol Airport, formally titled Vladimir Vysotsky International Airport, serves Magadan in Magadan Oblast in the Russian Far East. Operated by FSUE "Airport Magadan", it is a hub for IrAero and Yakutia Airlines and has long been the region's principal air link to the rest of Russia and, historically, to the United States. For a simulator pilot it offers a long, well-equipped concrete runway with an ILS approach into a remote and historically notable corner of the network.
The airport sits at the settlement of Sokol in Magadan Oblast, about 50 km (31 mi) north of Magadan city centre, at coordinates 59.9108 N, 150.72 E and an elevation of 558 ft. It should not be confused with the similarly named Dolinsk-Sokol air base on Sakhalin Island, well to the south.
The airport has a single physical runway, 10/28, 11,281 ft long with a hard surface and runway lighting. Runway 10 is equipped with an ILS approach, giving instrument access from the east; runway 28 is lit but has no instrument approach listed.
Magadan Approach can be contacted on 126.9 MHz, with an ATIS broadcast on 127.4 MHz. Magadan Volmet (PMSV) is available on 126.2 MHz for area weather information, and Magadan Tower operates on 120.8 MHz for aerodrome control. Runway 10 is served by an ILS.
Sokol Airport was inaugurated on 12 January 1961, initially known as Magadan-56 for its position at kilometre 56 of the Kolyma Highway, and it took over all passenger air services in the region from the older Magadan-47 airfield, whose unpaved runway no longer met modern technical requirements. Reconstruction of the runway and ground facilities began in 1978, and on 13 December 1980 the first Ilyushin Il-62 landed here, beginning regular non-stop services from Magadan to Moscow the following day. The Magadan air squadron, formed in 1963 from crews of older airbases in the region, operated until a reorganisation in 1991. That year, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the airport gained international status, and Alaska Airlines began flights to the United States using Boeing 727 aircraft, famously said to have had their wings de-iced with vodka on the inaugural service when proper equipment was unavailable. Aeroflot began nonstop Tupolev Tu-154 service to Anchorage in 1992, extending the route to Seattle in 1994. Alaska Airlines suspended its Russian services in 1998 following the financial crisis of that year, and Aeroflot itself suspended flights to Sokol in February 2009 over certification issues with newer aircraft types, resuming service the following month. The airport was also the departure point for Transaero's final flight, to Moscow Vnukovo, on 25 October 2015 before the airline's bankruptcy. In June 2023 an Air India Boeing 777 en route from New Delhi to San Francisco diverted here following an engine technical issue, landing safely with passengers subsequently rehoused locally before onward travel was arranged. A new passenger terminal was opened on 20 December 2024, with the first arrival being an S7 Airlines flight from Novosibirsk.
Sokol continues to operate as an international airport serving Magadan, acting as a hub for IrAero and Yakutia Airlines and handling scheduled services from carriers including Aurora, Rossiya, S7 Airlines and SiLA Airlines to destinations such as Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Novosibirsk and various points across the Russian Far East. Its long, lit, ILS-equipped runway 10/28 makes it usable in a range of weather conditions typical of this remote northern region.