Departure
100%
vs 95% ▲ 4
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Gagarin International Airport (UWSG/GSV) serves Saratov in southwestern Russia, having replaced the old city-centre Saratov Central Airport in August 2019. Built from scratch by Airports of Regions on a greenfield site at Saburovka, it offers a single long concrete runway equipped with ILS on both directions, making it a straightforward destination for airliner and general-aviation traffic alike in the simulator.
Gagarin International Airport lies a short distance north of Saratov, on the Volga, and opened in August 2019 as a purpose-built replacement for the historic but landlocked Saratov Central Airport. Operated by Airports of Regions, it was named after cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and was the third Russian airport built entirely from scratch since the end of the Soviet Union. For the simulator pilot it is a modern, single-runway field with precision approach guidance, offering a good study in flying into a purpose-built regional Russian hub.
The airport is situated at Saburovka in Saratov Oblast, around 20 kilometres north of the city of Saratov, close to the Volga river. It sits within Russian controlled airspace serving the Saratov area, with the airfield having taken over international and domestic services previously handled by the old city-centre airport before the latter's closure.
Gagarin International Airport has a single physical runway, 08/26, a hard-surfaced strip 8,996 feet in length. Both directions are equipped with an ILS, giving instrument approach capability to either end of the runway, which is useful for practising precision approaches in varying wind conditions.
No specific radio communication frequencies for Gagarin International Airport are recorded in the available aeronautical data; pilots planning a flight here in the simulator should expect standard Russian ATC and approach services to be modelled where scenery or online networks provide them. The field is equipped with ILS on both runway ends (08 and 26), supporting instrument approaches to either direction.
Saratov was served for decades by Saratov Central Airport, opened under Soviet rule in 1931, but by the 2000s that airfield had become hemmed in by the growing city with no room to expand and insufficient capacity for forecast passenger growth. In 2014 the operator Airports of Regions proposed a new airport for Saratov, and construction began in January 2015 on a new site away from the city. The new field was originally referred to under a working name before the constructors decided in 2017 to call it Gagarin, after cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin; this created some confusion since Orenburg's airport carries a similar name. Gagarin International Airport became operational on 20 August 2019, making it the third Russian airport built entirely from scratch since the collapse of the Soviet Union, following Talakan Airport in Yakutia and Platov International Airport at Rostov-on-Don, the latter also operated by Airports of Regions.
Gagarin International Airport is a federal airport located some 20 kilometres north of Saratov. It was certified to ICAO Category II standards in 2020. As a scheduled international and domestic airport it handles regular airline traffic, and general-aviation or simulator pilots planning a visit should expect it to operate as a controlled, active civil aerodrome; prior permission would be required for any non-scheduled flying activity.