Departure
96%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Boryspil International Airport, some 29 km east of Kyiv, is Ukraine's largest airport and the country's principal international gateway, built around two long ILS-equipped runways capable of handling wide-body traffic. Operated by the Ukrainian civil government, it served the majority of Ukraine's international and intercontinental air traffic before its closure to civil aviation following the Russian invasion in February 2022. For a simulator pilot it offers a study in Soviet-era origins turned modern hub, with Category IIIA approach capability on both its runways.
Boryspil International Airport (ICAO: UKBB, IATA: KBP) is Ukraine's largest and busiest airport, situated in the town of Boryspil in Kyiv Oblast. Operated as a civil government facility, it grew from a Soviet military airfield into the principal hub for Kyiv, handling around 65 percent of Ukraine's passenger air traffic before the Russian invasion of 2022, including all of the country's intercontinental services. Its scale and long, ILS-capable runways make it a natural draw for simulator pilots interested in flying heavy international traffic into Eastern Europe.
The airport lies in Boryspil, Kyiv Oblast, about 29 km (18 miles) east of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. It is one of two airports serving the city, the other being the smaller Zhuliany Airport located within Kyiv itself. Air traffic in the area is handled by Kyiv Radar.
Boryspil has two parallel hard-surfaced runways, both lit and equipped with ILS. Runway 18L/36R is the longer of the pair at 13,076 feet, while runway 18R/36L measures 11,430 feet. Field elevation is 413 feet.
ATIS broadcasts on 126.7 MHz. Clearance delivery (CLD/DLV) is on 130.275 MHz, ground on 118.05 MHz, operations (OPS) on 131.775 MHz, radar (RDR) on 124.675 MHz under the callsign Kyiv Radar, and tower on 119.65 MHz. Both runways are served by ILS, and the airport has historically been certified for Category IIIA precision approaches.
Boryspil's civil aviation history began on 22 June 1959, when the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR ordered the establishment of regular civil air traffic at what had been a military airfield, then known as Kyiv-Tsentralnyi. The first scheduled flight arrived on 7 July 1959, an Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-104 from Moscow carrying 100 passengers. A permanent air group of Tu-104 and Antonov An-10 aircraft was assigned in November 1960, and a new passenger terminal opened in 1965 along with an automatic landing assistance system. Through the 1960s and 1970s the based fleet expanded to include Tu-134 and Tu-154 turbofan aircraft and Ilyushin Il-18 turboprops. During the later Cold War the Soviet Air Force maintained a presence at the airfield, with the 1st Military Aviation Transportation Regiment (1 VTAP) flying Ilyushin Il-76 cargo jets. Limited international flights began in the 1980s, though ordinary Soviet citizens were restricted to departing abroad only from Moscow. Aeroflot introduced direct service to New York in 1991, and in 1993 the newly independent Ukraine's Ministry of Transportation reorganised the field as Boryspil State International Airport, with a local subdivision of Air Ukraine formed to serve it. A $15 million refurbishment followed, led by a Dublin-based construction consortium under Ronnie Petrie with designs by UK consultants Mark Homer Design. A new runway was completed in 2001, the year the airport carried 1.5 million passengers, and it was subsequently certified for Category IIIA ILS approaches. In 2002 it gained ISO 9001 certification, and by 2008 it was handling over 6 million passengers a year, consistently accounting for 60 to 70 percent of Ukraine's air travel demand. From 2005 its Terminal B was expanded to cope with growing international traffic. By 2013 the smaller in-city Zhuliany Airport had emerged as a significant competitor. Since 24 February 2022, following the Russian invasion, Ukrainian airspace has been closed to civilian flights and Boryspil has operated no scheduled, charter or cargo services; the airport has also been struck by Russian missiles targeting Ukrainian infrastructure.
Boryspil International Airport has not handled scheduled, charter or cargo flights since Ukrainian airspace was closed to civil aviation on 24 February 2022 as a result of the Russian invasion. As of recent reporting the airspace remains closed and commercial air travel across Ukraine remains suspended.