Kurumoch International Airport

Kurumoch International Airport (Russian: Международный аэропорт "Курумоч") (IATA: KUF, ICAO: UWWW) is the international airport of Samara, Russia, located 35 km (22 mi) north of the city. Besides Samara, the airport serves Tolyatti – the second largest city in the region. The name of the airport originated from the closest village Kurumoch 7 km (4 mi) southwest. Kurumoch was used as a hub for Samara Airlines until the airline's bankruptcy. In 2011, Kurumoch was acquired by the largest airport holding and management company in Russia, Airports of Regions.

Kurumoch International Airport

Международный аэропорт "Курумоч»
Summary
Airport typePublic
OwnerJSC "Kurumoch International Airport"
OperatorHC Airports of Regions
ServesSamara, Tolyatti
LocationSamara, Russia
Elevation AMSL477 ft / 145 m
Coordinates53°30′6″N 050°9′18″E
Websitekuf.aero
Map
KUF
Location of the airport in Samara Oblast
KUF
Location of the airport in Russia
KUF
Location of the airport in Europe
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
05/23 8,360 2,548 Asphalt
15/33 9,846 3,001 Concrete
Statistics (2018)
Passenger Traffic3,056,610
Time ZoneUTC +4
Operating Time24/7, All Year
Sources: Russian Federal Air Transport Agency (see also provisional 2018 statistics)[1]

Description

Kurumoch became officially operational on 15 May 1961, as a domestic airport. The airport is notable for being the largest airport (by passenger traffic) in the Volga Federal District. In 2017, Kurumoch Airport served 2,649,426 passengers, a 26.6% increase from the previous year. Over 30 airlines made 12,959 departures to 43 destinations in 2017, in addition to 3,483 tons of cargo being processed at the cargo terminal.[2] As of August 2018, the airport is ranked 13th in Russia by passenger count, with 2,092,064 after the 8-month period, an increase of 20.7% from August 2017 results.

History

1957–1991

On 19 December 1957, in accordance with a decree of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union, the construction of Kurumoch Airport commenced. Construction was overseen and managed by N.P. Skrinsky, the chairman of the Kuybyshev airport from 7 January 1958, to 14 December 1959. The airport was at first named Kurumoch Airport, but was later renamed Kuybyshev Airport because Samara's official name from 1935 to 1991 was Kuybyshev. The airport did not have a domestic or international passenger status, because the initial purpose of the airport was for military practices and cargo imports/exports.[3]

Kurumoch airport at night.

On 30 July 1960, Kuybyshev Airport became operational for military purposes. On that same day, the first avionic practice was held with 13 Ilyushin Il-18s and seven Antonov An-10s. Kuybyshev Airport was also used as a transit aerodrome for short-range aircraft in need of refuelling.

On 27 February 1961, the first commercial flight from Kuybyshev Airport to Sheremetyevo International Airport, Moscow, was piloted by V. A. Mikhailov. On 15 May 1961, Kuybyshev gained domestic passenger status and had its first daily flight to Mineralnye Vody. That same year, Kuybyshev Airport was granted flights to Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Tashkent, Adler, etc.[3]

Construction continued between 1965 and 1970, with a new maintenance hangar, baggage claim facility, 5-story hotel, a second runway, and new oil storage bunkers added to the airport's infrastructure. In 1970, approximately 700,000 passengers and 27,000 tonnes of cargo passed through Kuybyshev Airport. By 1971, all the facilities and expansions were completed. In 1972, construction on a training center for flight engineers was completed. That same year, after endurance tests were completed, the second runway was exploited for commercial use.[3]

Between 1981 and 1990, Kuybyshev Airport underwent two indoor reconstructions. The second one, in 1989, was for the purpose of creating two different lounge areas. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the two areas became the airport's domestic departure zone. A new flight catering facility was constructed. The facility demanded a large quantity of electricity for the freezers and conveyor belts, thus a much stronger transmission tower cable system was run to the airport. This also improved the living conditions of the village of Kurumoch nearby, which the cable ran through. In 1990, Kuybyshev Airport reached its passenger traffic peak of 3,700,000.[3]

1991–2011

Preceding the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the City of Kuybyshev was renamed Samara. In 1992, after meeting with the ICAO requirements, Kurumoch Airport was granted international status. In 1993, the construction of a new international terminal was completed. It is still used to this day as the main and only terminal.

On 19 February 1993, the airport created an Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) Samara Airlines. Samara Airlines was made for the benefit and prosperity of the Kuybyshev International Airport. On 9 December 1994, the airport made another OJSC "International Airport Samara".

On 31 May 2002, Kuybyshev International Airport was renamed to Kurumoch International Airport. The previous name was dismissed because of its ties with the Soviet Union (The city and airport were named after Valerian Kuybyshev: a pro-Soviet revolutionary). It was renamed to Kurumoch after the small village near the airport, and due to the fact that the airport's original name was Kurumoch Airport.[3]

During 2007, with Rosaviatsia in cooperation with Russia's Ministry of Transport, a systematic plan was created in order to boost regional and general aviation in Russia between 2008 and 2020. This included the optimization of Russian air companies (Aeroflot, S7, etc.) and airports, as well as the creation of transit traffic and hub airports. Kurumoch was prospectively regarded as the best hub airport for the Volga Federal District.[3]

2011–2015

In 2011, as was demanded by the President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, OJSC "International Airport Samara" was to auction 50.99% of its shares to capitalist investors. That same year Airports of Regions, the largest airport holding company in Russia (and held by Renova Group), won their bid on the investment towards Kurumoch International Airport.

On 17 January 2012, "Koltsovo Invest" and JSC "Development Corporation Samara Region" signed a contract officially realizing the Kurumoch development project. The contract stated that in Phase I of construction, Airports of Regions was to build a new terminal no less than 35,000 m² in size, and the facility was to be exploited no later than 31 December 2014. The contract also noted that the airport was to have a passenger traffic handling rate of 3,500,000 passengers annually, and cost approximately 12,300,000,000 rubles (via 2011 currency rate), 4,331,000,000 of which were to be invested by private owners/companies.[4] Most of the contract clauses regarding Phase I of the development project were met.

2015–Present

Phase II is set between 2015 and 2018, and is aimed at increasing the area of the then existing terminal (an additional 25,000 m², creating a facility with 60,000 m² total surface), the construction of a new 4-star hotel, a business center, a multi-storey parking area, and an Aeroexpress/train station. After Phase II, the airport should be able to handle up to 4,000,000 passengers annually.

In 2017, Skytrax owned to Kurumoch Airport 4 stars, and made it to be the fourth airport in Russia & CIS after Baku, Kazan and Yekaterinburg, which also belongs to Airports of Regions.

Sponsorship and charity donations

Since the 1970s, Kurumoch International Airport has sponsored FC Polet, which it co-created with USSR theater performer Alexander Komissarov. Today, the football club is sponsored by the JSC "Kurumoch International Airport". In November 2014, Kurumoch International Airport, decided to relocate all matches played by FC Polet in the next season to the Metallurg Stadium in Samara.[5]

Infrastructure
Kurumoch's main entrance and check-in desks
The "space" styled interior of the airport.

Today, the airport consists of 2 runways, 1 cargo terminal, 1 VIP terminal (departure and arrivals), and 2 airport facilities. Kurumoch has 50 parking slots for various types of aircraft. The airport can handle 19 aircraft at any particular time.

Terminal A

Also known as the main terminal and the departure building, Terminal A is the most widely used facility of the entire airport. Terminal A finished construction in 1993, but underwent major renovations in 1998 and 2004. The building is 11,340 m² and consists of 3 floors: the underground floor, floor 1 and floor 2. the main terminal serves as the departure for international and domestic flights (including baggage handling for departure flights) and as an air traffic control tower. Additionally, most of JSC International Airport "Kurumoch"'s offices are located in terminal A. Altogether, Terminal A has a capacity of 750 passenger per hour. The domestic zone has a capacity of 600 passengers per hour, whilst the international terminal can handle 150 passengers per hour.

Renovations within the terminal have been made as recently as spring 2014. Floor 1 consists of 8 check-in desks for domestic departures and 6 for international and the domestic departure lounge. Floor 2 has a variety of air company offices, the international departure zone and staff rooms.

VIP terminal

The business terminal was built in 2004. It can handle 50 passengers per hour. The business terminal offers private check-in desks and a lounge area with standard entertainment systems. Kurumoch also offers all business class personnel a ride to their aircraft by separate buses.

Runways/Other

The airport contains 2 runways, but at the moment only the used runway is equipped with ILS equipment and certified with a category IIIA ICAO ILS license. The used runway is 3,001mx55m and is made of asphalt-concrete. The second runway was 2,548x60m and made of concrete, but is currently under reconstruction. The cargo terminal can handle 200 tonnes per hour and is 3,758 m².

Construction
Terminal 1 on 19 September 2014.
View of the airport from the runway.

Decision for a new terminal

In the 1990s, Kurumoch's passenger traffic rate was decreasing, therefore it didn't have any significant investments. The passenger traffic was relatively low and could be served with comfort in the old terminal. But as the passenger traffic rate began to increase, the problem of overcrowding was a potential threat. Kurumoch's terminal was meant for approximately 1,250,000 passengers annually, but in 2008 the airport was already serving over 1,400,000 passengers. The main terminal did not have any definite arrival section until the late 1990s and today's Domestic and International Baggage claim is not equipped to handle such a flow of passengers.

In spring 2011, a contest over the investment towards a complete reconstruction of Kurumoch's facilities was announced. In fall 2011, HC Airports of Regions won the bid and gained full legal rights over the investment of Kurumoch International Airport. Airports of Regions finished developing their complete plan on the construction of multiple new facilities in the spring of 2012. The construction was split into 2 phases: Phase I and Phase II. The initial price of the new airport was placed at 339,11,1370 USD or 13,000,000,000 rubles. Today, the builders of the new airport are CJSC KOMPACT Saint Petersburg. KOMPAKT set their deadline on the completion of Phase I on 31 December 2014. Phase II is said to be completed by the spring of 2018; before the 2018 FIFA World Cup, in which Samara is an official host city.

Phase I

Phase I will include the construction of Terminal B, ground parking lot, a new cargo terminal, and additionally the reconstruction of the unused runway.

The airport terminal will have 7 jet bridges, 2 of them being double bridges, 4 conveyor belts, 2,000 m² of Duty-free shops, a Business Lounge, 24 check-in desks, and commercial shops/restaurants. The new terminal itself is said to be over 41,700 m². The jet bridges will be supplied by the Thyssen Krupp company. The airport will have 5 floors all together: 3 main floors and 2 mezzanines. The very first floor will have the check-in desks, baggage wrapping, commercial stores such as Good Trip, and Zdorovye Lyudi (Здоровые Люди). Blueprints show the arrivals and baggage claim section on the second floor. The third floor will contain security desks, passport control and the departure zone, as well as the duty-free shops and the VIP Lounge. The Domestic and International security check stations and passport control will be separate from each other. The Domestic part of the airport is said to have 4 jet bridges, while the international will have 3. There will be 7 Gates for the jet bridges and 6 for the bus systems. The new terminal will have a variety of restaurants. The airport will be able to handle up to 4,000,000 passengers per year.

Phase II

Phase II will include the construction of a business center and hotel connected to or near Terminal B, a train system from Kurumoch International Airport to Samara and a levelled parking lot.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger
Samara Airlines Tupolev Tu-134 served at Samara-Kurumoch.
Aeroflot Sukhoi Superjet 100 landing at Samara-Kurumoch.
Rossiya Tupolev Tu-154M taxiing at Samara-Kurumoch.
Aeroflot-Nord Tupolev Tu-134A taking off at Samara-Kurumoch.
AirlinesDestinations
Aeroflot Moscow–Sheremetyevo
ALROSA Mirny, Moscow–Domodedovo
Azimuth Krasnodar,[6] Rostov-on-Don[7]
Azur Air Seasonal charter: Dubai-Al Maktoum, Goa-Dabolim, Enfidha , Nha Trang-Cam Ranh, Phuket
Ellinair Seasonal: Thessaloniki
flydubai Seasonal: Dubai–International
I-Fly Seasonal charter: Sanya
IrAero Baku, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Novy Urengoy, Saint Petersburg, Volgograd
Izhavia Seasonal charter: Novy Urengoy
Nordwind Airlines Seasonal charter: Nha Trang-Cam Ranh, Phuket, Pattaya-U-Tapao
Pegas Fly Yerevan
Seasonal charter: Dubai-Al Maktoum
Red Wings Moscow–Domodedovo[8]
Seasonal charter: Antalya
Rossiya Saint Petersburg
Seasonal: Sochi
Royal Flight Seasonal charter: Dubai-Al Maktoum, Goa-Dabolim
RusLine Syktyvkar[9]
S7 Airlines Moscow–Domodedovo, Novosibirsk[10][11]
Smartavia Saint Petersburg
Smartwings Prague[12]
Turkish Airlines Istanbul[13]
Ural Airlines Dushanbe, Khujand, Moscow–Domodedovo, Noyabrsk, Simferopol, Sochi, Yerevan
Seasonl charter: Antalya, Tivat
Utair Moscow–Vnukovo, Nizhnevartovsk, Yekaterinburg
Seasonal: Kogalym, Sabetta, Surgut,[14] Ufa
UVT Aero Chelyabinsk, Kazan, Novy Urengoy, Omsk, Perm, Salekhard
Uzbekistan Airways Tashkent
Yamal Airlines Mirny, Tyumen

Cargo
AirlinesDestinations
ASL Airlines France Paris–Charles de Gaulle

Statistics

Annual traffic
Annual Passenger Traffic[15]
Year Passengers % Change
20101,570,911
20111,740,641 10.8%
20121,890,483 8.6%
20132,167,728 14.7%
20142,377,418 9.7%
20152,208,129 7.1%
20162,091,818 5.3%
20172,649,426 26.7%

Accidents and incidents
gollark: Interesting!
gollark: Oh hey, they're switching to RISC-V?
gollark: MIPS is cool due to being elegant and actually consistent.
gollark: MIPS is truly a great ISA, and an inspiration for PotatoASM™1.
gollark: The browser version is more RAM-efficient, allows "tab" technology for multiple discords at once, and better-sandboxed.

See also

References
  1. "Объемы перевозок через аэропорты России" [Transportation volumes at Russian airports]. www.favt.ru (in Russian). Federal Air Transport Agency. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  2. "Airports of Regions". en.ar-management.ru. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  3. "Холдинг "Аэропорты Регионов"". ar-management.ru. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  4. "Подписано инвестиционное соглашение по проекту развития международного аэропорта "Курумоч" | Официальный сайт ОАО "Корпорация развития Самарской области"". www.razvitie63.ru. Archived from the original on 5 June 2015. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  5. "В 2015 году "Полет" переедет на "Металлург"". 15 November 2014. Archived from the original on 13 January 2015. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
  6. Liu, Jim (23 April 2019). "AZIMUTH schedules domestic new routes in S19". Routesonline. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  7. "Авиакомпания Азимут открыла продажу авиабилетов на рейсы из Ростова в Новосибирск, Екатеринбург и Самару". azimuth.aero. Azimuth. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
  8. "ЛЕТОМ БУДЕТ ЗАПУЩЕН НОВЫЙ РЕЙС В МОСКВУ". АвиаПорт. 21 February 2020. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  9. Liu, Jim (20 December 2019). "RusLine adds new domestic sectors in 1Q20". Routesonline. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  10. "Russia, Novosibirsk, Tolmachevo (OVB)SwapRussia, Samara, Kurumoch (KUF)". S7 Airlines. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  11. Liu, Jim (5 March 2018). "S7 Airlines boosts Novosibirsk domestic network in S18". Routesonline. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  12. Liu, Jim. "CSA Czech moves selected Russian service to Smartwings from Feb 2019". Routesonline. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  13. "Istanbul New Airport Transition Delayed Until April 5, 2019 (At The Earliest)".
  14. Liu, Jim (24 April 2018). "UTair adds seasonal Surgut routes from June 2018". Routesonline. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  15. Statistics NEWS. "аэропорт КУРУМОЧ → Об Аэропорте → Новости → Самарский аэропорт подвел итоги 2017 года". аэропорт КУРУМОЧ (in Russian). Archived from the original on 18 August 2018. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
  16. Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Tupolev 124V CCCP-45028 Kuybyshev Airport (KUF)". aviation-safety.net. Archived from the original on 12 August 2017. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
  17. Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Tupolev 134A-3 RA-65021 Samara Airport (KUF)". aviation-safety.net. Archived from the original on 30 June 2017. Retrieved 21 May 2017.

Media related to Kurumoch International Airport at Wikimedia Commons

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.