Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday flew to the new Gagarin Airport in Saratov from Zhukovsky outside Moscow, where he attended the MAKS 2019 International Air Show with President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Gagarin International Airport, 30 km away from Saratov, is the second major air hub in Russia built from the ground up in recent years; the first was Platov Airport in Rostov-on-Don.
The Saratov project was developed through a public-private partnership under the State Program for the Development of Russia’s Transport System. The airport terminal is 23K sq. m. in area. The passenger terminal is designed to handle 1 mio people a year. The length of the runway is 3K m, and the width, 45 m.
The first passenger test flight, Moscow Vnukovo airport-Gagarin-Vnukovo, was flown by Pobeda airline on August 18. The airport began serving passengers and airlines two days later.