Zhukovsky is set to become the Russian capital's fourth official gateway on its opening to commercial traffic next month.
Thomas Vaishvila, CEO of the Ramport airport management company, told the Gazeta.ru news site that the airfield's new 17,600sqm modular passenger terminal would open on Tuesday, March 15. iFly Airlines (F7, Moscow Vnukovo) has reportedly committed itself to operating the airfield's maiden commercial flight.
The building constitutes the first of Ramport's three-stage approach towards turning Zhukovsky into a commercially viable civilian airport. During the second phase, expected to start this September, the terminal will be expanded to 47,600sqm while a 100,000sqm shopping centre will be built. The third phase, which is expected to be completed in 2020, will involve further expanding the terminal to 60,000sqm while an MRO hangar will be built as well.
In a bid to alleviate pressure on Moscow Sheremetyevo, Moscow Domodedovo, and Moscow Vnukovo, then Russian prime-minister Vladimir Putin proposed shifting all charter and low-cost traffic to Zhukovsky airport. Thus far, however, no scheduled commercial operator has yet committed to using the airfield which is located 40km outside of downtown Moscow.
Until now, Zhukovsky has been used primarily as a testing facility for Sukhoi Civil Aircraft (Zhukovsky), the Ilyushin Design Bureau (Zhukovsky), the Tupolev Design Bureau (Zhukovsky) and the Gromov Flight Research Institute (Moscow Chkalovsky) and is a base for the Russian government's Ministry for Emergency Situations - MCHS Rossii (SUM, Zhukovsky). It features a 5,402m-long primary runway built during the Soviet era to accommodate Buran Spacecraft tests.
