Does anybody know why Komsomulsk na Amur (KXK) has no scheduled flights?
Most Siberian Cities and even the smaller settlements are reasonably well served with flights to major Siberian Cities and/or Moscow. KXK is a glaring exception, despite being one of the larger Cities in Siberia with over 260 000 residents, there appears to be no regular Air Service at all! The nearest Airport which does is KHV which is a 5 hour drive to the South.
The only reason I can think of is that it could be an attempt to limit access to the City for Security reasons. The City is the home of KNAAPO, the Aircraft Plant that builds Sukhoi Fighter Jets but that facility is located at a different Airport (UHKD). I would have thought the mere presence of the KNAAPO plant would have created a lot of Passenger traffic between KXK and larger Russian Ports. But apparently if anyone is coming in for work or other reasons they are doing so on Charter Flights or by Rail or Road,
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Re: Komsomulsk na Amur a defacto Closed City?
I start by confessing total ignorance.
If the Sukhoi KNAAPO plant is located at UHKD, why fly to KXK to get to UHKD?
If the Sukhoi KNAAPO plant is located at UHKD, why fly to KXK to get to UHKD?
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- Pentaprism
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Re: Komsomulsk na Amur a defacto Closed City?
art wrote:I start by confessing total ignorance.
If the Sukhoi KNAAPO plant is located at UHKD, why fly to KXK to get to UHKD?
Both Airports are located in the same City. KXK (UHKK) lies to the South of the City and has previously had some Civilian Flights from what I have read, But I haven't been able to work out when or why they stopped. UKHD is about 30km to the North on the other side of the City. It's a major fighter base and also hosts the Aircraft Manufacturing Plant that Builds Sukhoi Fighters and also the Sukhoi Superjet Civilian Aircraft. I would expect security at UKHD would be pretty high.
Re: Komsomulsk na Amur a defacto Closed City?
Pentaprism wrote:Does anybody know why Komsomulsk na Amur (KXK) has no scheduled flights?
Apparently it's primiarily a military air base, and there doesn't seem to be the traffic to support them, though five weekly regional flights are planned. From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komsomols ... ur_Airport
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- Pentaprism
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Re: Komsomulsk na Amur a defacto Closed City?
Braybuddy wrote:Pentaprism wrote:Does anybody know why Komsomulsk na Amur (KXK) has no scheduled flights?
Apparently it's primiarily a military air base, and there doesn't seem to be the traffic to support them, though five weekly regional flights are planned. From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komsomols ... ur_Airport
If you look at comparable size and smaller Siberian Cities it seems there would have to be enough traffic to support some flights;
Chita, Population 329 000. Today's flights
MOW 3
OVB 2
IKT 1
YKS 1
BTK 1
Ulan Ude, Population 413 000
MOW 3
OVB 2
YKS 1
Abakhan, Population 168 000
MOW 2
OVB 1
KJA 1
NSK 1
KYZ 1
Bratsk, Pop 242 000
MOW 1
OVB 1
KJA 1
HTA 1
IKT 1
SVX 1
Mirny, Pop 40 000 (Diamond Mine Town)
MOW 3
OVB 2
YKS 1
Anadyr Pop 15 000
MOW 1 (767!)
VVO 1
PKC 1
GDX 1
Magadan Pop 95 000
MOW 1 (777!)
OVB 1
KHV 2
SWV 1
KPW 1
DYR 1
Source: Flightradar24
Also the Russian Government is subsiding flights to Regional Ports to facilitate development. https://www.routesonline.com/news/29/br ... subsidies/. So even if flights were not profitable it would be normal to provide some anyway.
The other point is that this is the City that makes the Flanker Series Fighters, some of the most agile Aircraft ever built. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWURVENf0ns. There would have to be a lot of highly skilled and presumably well paid people living there. Like most Russians they would want to fly to Moscow, St Petersburg, Black Sea Resorts etc for their holidays. But there are no flights for them to do so which is somewhat extraordinary.
The only other major Russian City I can see without Regular Air Services is Smolensk (pop 330 000). But Smolensk is only 4 hours drive from Moscow and the area gets a lot of fog so it's less surprising they don't have Air Services.
Re: Komsomulsk na Amur a defacto Closed City?
Pentaprism wrote:
The only other major Russian City I can see without Regular Air Services is Smolensk (pop 330 000). But Smolensk is only 4 hours drive from Moscow and the area gets a lot of fog so it's less surprising they don't have Air Services.
Smolensk is even closer to Minsk, and before COVID border restrictions with Belarus there was no land border and locals would often fly out from MSQ. There's also a pretty comfortable train every couple hours to MOW.
They do have a GA airport that used to be their ex-regional aerodrome back from the USSR days. Landed a couple times there last year on a PA27. Some apartment blocks sprung up on 3 sides of it so your final approach is at roof/top balcony level. Pretty cool.