Oral Ak Zhol Airport

Oral Ak Zhol Airport (Kazakh: Aqjol halyqaralyq áýejaıy; formerly known as Uralsk Ak Zhol and Podstepnyy during the Soviet era) (IATA: URA, ICAO: UARR) is an airport in Kazakhstan located 12 km (7 mi) southeast of Oral (Uralsk). The airport is located south of the Ural (Oral) River.

Oral Ak Zhol Airport Uralsk Airport
IATA: URA ICAO: UARR
Summary
Airport type	Public
Operator	JSC "Ak jol International Airport"
Serves	Oral
Location	12 km (7.5 mi) SE of Oral, Kazakhstan
Elevation AMSL	38 m / 125 ft
Coordinates	51°09′03″N 051°32′35″E
Map
URA Location in Kazakhstan Show map of Kazakhstan URA URA (Asia) Show map of Asia
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 04/22 2,799 9,183 Concrete
Source: AIP Kazakhstan[1]

It is a small airport servicing medium-sized airliners. It has parking for four jets. This airport has two terminals – domestic and international. The airport also serves the nearby town of Aksai, which provides the majority of Ak Zhol passenger traffic, being the "capital" of the gas industry in West Kazakhstan. In the past, a weekly international charter flight was operated by Astraeus Airlines from Oral to London Gatwick/London Stansted; this was subsequently operated by Air Astana to Amsterdam; however the route was terminated, along with other Air Astana flights, due to the poor condition of the runway. The airport runway and facilities were inspected by Mott MacDonald to confirm that its substandard condition prevented the airport from accommodating larger jet aircraft. On 17 April 2013, the decision was made to transfer the airport's ownership back to the government for runway reconstruction.

Airlines and destinations

Domestic terminal check-in area

International terminal

Passenger

Airlines	Destinations
Air Astana	Almaty, Frankfurt, Nur-Sultan
FlyArystan	Almaty, Atyrau (begins 15 July 2020)[2]
Qazaq Air	Astrakhan, Atyrau
S7 Airlines	Moscow–Domodedovo[3]
SCAT Airlines	Aktau, Atyrau[4]
Sunday Airlines	Seasonal charter: Sharm El Sheikh

Cargo

Airlines	Destinations
Coyne Airways	Atyrau, Baku
Silk Way Airlines	Baku

Ground transport

Bus

The No 12 municipal bus line connects Ak Zhol International airport with centrally located Uralsk train station. Service is available from 06:00 to 22:00 daily.

Taxi

There is always a queue of available private taxi cabs at the airport parking lot.

Accidents and incidents

• On 15 April 2006, a British Airways Boeing 747 operating as flight number BA10 from Sydney to London via Bangkok with 354 passengers and 18 crew made an emergency landing at Uralsk Airport after a fire warning light went on in the cockpit. Although the only airport's landing strip is certified for operation of medium-sized aircraft the crew managed to perform a safe landing. There were no fatalities or reportable injuries, however the airport did not have the correct size of air stairs to reach the aircraft doors, the largest passenger aircraft that had operated on a regular basis previously had been an Air Astana Boeing 757. As the 747 was deemed too heavy for take-off smaller size aircraft were sent from Moscow and Bucharest to ferry the passengers to London.[5]
• On 28 August 2009, an Itek Air Boeing-737-200 en route from Bishkek to Moscow performed an emergency landing due to oil leak on the port engine.
• On 17 November 2011, a Bek Air Fokker 100 operating as flight BEK-2011 from Almaty to Uralsk made an emergency landing in Uralsk after a go-around having a landing gear and cargo door failure alerts.

References

1. AIP Kazakhstan Archived 30 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine
2. Liu, Jim. "FlyArystan expands domestic network in July/August 2020". Routesonline. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
3. Liu, Jim (18 July 2016). "S7 Airlines Adds Moscow – Uralsk Service from Nov 2016". Airlineroute, Routesonline. Retrieved 18 July 2016.
4. Liu, Jim (23 March 2017). "SCAT adds new routes in S17". Routesonline. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
5. "BA010 BKK-LHR Divert - PPRuNe Forums". www.pprune.org. Retrieved 27 December 2019.