Kyzyl Airport gets ready for Superjet 100 operations

The runway surface in Kyzyl is not hard enough for SSJ 100s to take off with full tanks which significantly reduces the aircraft’s flight range (Photo by Oschtan // Wikipedia)

The airport of Kyzyl, the capital of the Russian region of Tyva, has been partially prepared for Sukhoi Superjet 100 operations. This can attract new airlines to this regional airport.

In mid September Kyzyl airport finalized the modernization of the 1500-meter section of its runway which had been previously receiving complaints from SSJ 100 operators. Another 1200-meter long section, however, is still to be resurfaced.

But the first landing on the renovated runway was performed on October 11 by a NordStar’s (Taymyr Airlines) ATR 42-500 regional turboprop on a flight from Krasnoyarsk.

The reconstruction of the first section started in April 2016. As for the remaining part, its base layer is to be completed by the end of this year “should the weather permit”. The apron is also undergoing reconstruction at the moment.

Previous runway’s MTOW limitations raised serious complaints among SSJ 100 operators. Particularly, last year Atlas Jet expressed concerns that its aircraft could not take off the Kyzyl runway with full tanks and thus had to plan an intermediate refueling stop on their flights to Moscow.

IrAero airline, which has recently started SSJ 100 operations, will possibly consider Kyzyl airport as one of its new destinations once the modernization project is completed. Besides, Kyzyl-base carrier Tyva Airlines might also introduce the aircraft into its fleet. The company signed a letter of intent with the GTLK State Transport Leasing Company for 10 SSJ 100s at MAKS-2015 air show. The delivery was expected to start this year.

Apart from the runway and apron, the reconstruction in Kyzyl will also include the taxiway, maintenance stands and de-icing pads as well as lighting and communication systems. The work is to be finalized by late 2017.

The renovation of Kyzyl Airport is conducted within the federally supported Tyva Social and Economic Development Plan for 2015-2025. As it was previously announced, the reconstruction project was to receive 1.06 billion rubles ($16.7 million) of federal subsidies, although later even a bigger sum of the federal budget was allocated.

According to the Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) in January-June 2016 the passenger traffic in Kyzyl Airport grew by 6.2% and comprised 11.9 thousand passengers.