Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Koltsovo Airport is the large international airport serving Yekaterinburg in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, lying some 16 km southeast of the city centre. It offers a pair of long, lit hard-surface runways with ILS approaches, making it a straightforward and well-equipped destination for simulator pilots flying into central Russia. The field carries a long and varied history, from Soviet-era military aviation trials to a wartime stopover by a US president.
Koltsovo Airport serves the city of Yekaterinburg and the wider Sverdlovsk Oblast, and is one of the busiest airports in Russia. It functions as a hub for Ural Airlines, RusLine and Aviacon Zitotrans, and also hosts a military transport aviation regiment alongside its civil operations. For a simulator pilot, its combination of two parallel hard-surface runways, ILS guidance and a genuinely interesting history make it a rewarding VFR or IFR destination in the Urals region.
The airport lies approximately 16 km (10 miles) southeast of Yekaterinburg, and besides the city itself it also serves the nearby towns of Aramil, Sysert and Polevskoy. As the largest airport in Sverdlovsk Oblast and a designated priority airport for Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency, it sits within controlled airspace appropriate to a major international hub, though specific airspace classification details are not covered in the available sources.
Koltsovo has two parallel hard-surface runways, both lit and equipped with ILS. The first, 08R/26L, is 9,898 ft in the 08R direction and 8,842 ft in the 26L direction. The second, 08L/26R, is 9,845 ft in the 08L direction and 9,027 ft in the 26R direction. Field elevation is 748 ft.
Radio services include APP on 125.9 MHz, an ATIS on 127.8 MHz, GCA on 120 MHz, GND on 119 MHz, an ASR radar service (RDR) on 118.7 MHz, and TWR on 120 MHz. Both runway directions are served by ILS.
The site was first developed as an aerodrome between 1928 and 1930 at the direction of the Air Force Institute of the USSR, and was primarily built for military use. In 1932 the 33rd air division was transferred to Koltsovo before later being redirected to the Finnish border during the Winter War. Following Nazi Germany's declaration of war on the Soviet Union, a one-kilometre runway was built at remarkable speed, completed within three months. On 15 May 1942 the USSR's first jet-engine aircraft, the BI-1, flown by Grigory Bakhchivadzhi, made its maiden flight from Koltsovo; a full-scale replica of the BI-1 now stands in front of the airport in his honour. On 10 July 1943 the airport gained domestic civil status, becoming the first airport in the USSR to hold both civil and military status simultaneously, with daily flights operating to Moscow. In December 1943, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt stayed overnight at Koltsovo while returning from the Tehran Conference. During the Second World War the airfield formed a link in the classified route bringing Lend-Lease C-47 aircraft from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Moscow, and by January 1944 the airport operated a fleet of two Li-2s and two Junkers aircraft for domestic services. After Germany's surrender, Koltsovo was used to relocate military aircraft eastward for operations against Japan. In 1951 the airfield was reconstructed, and in the early 1950s it served as a layover point on the Moscow-Beijing route, with the Koltsovo-Beijing leg becoming the airport's first international service. A new terminal in the Russian Imperial-Modern style, notable for its large spire, was completed in 1954 and became a prominent landmark of Yekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk.
Koltsovo today operates as a major international airport and is a hub for Ural Airlines and RusLine, with Pobeda also using it as a focus city, and it additionally serves as a base for Aviacon Zitotrans. It is managed by Airports of Regions Holding, which also operates several other Russian regional airports, and is a member of Airports Council International. The airport shares its site with the 32nd Independent Composite Transport Aviation Regiment of the 14th Air and Air Defence Forces Army, reflecting its continuing dual civil and military role.