About the Airport
History of Pulkovo Airport
Pulkovo Airport was officially founded on 24 June 1932, when its airfield went into operation. The airport was originally named Shosseinaya after a nearby railway station. In one of its 1932 issues, Izvestiya newspaper wrote: «…on 24 June, the first two airplanes with passengers and mail from Moscow hit the runway of the Leningrad airport…» The two Russian capitals, old and new, were now linked by a regular air service, opening a new page in the history of Russia’s fledgling civil aviation.
1933 – 1935. An active development of regional flights began. Aviators of Leningrad started flights to Petrozavodsk, Chagoda, Pudozh, Uchta, Arkhangelsk, Vitebsk, Kiev and Murmansk.
1936. Foundation was laid for the air terminal; Leningrad’s aviators received new airplanes, including the more roomy G-2, PS-40 and PS-84 planes.
1941. Regular passenger flights started between Moscow and St. Petersburg (the service had previously been equally divided between passengers and mail). Early in the morning on June 22, a flyer named N.A. Mikheev flew central newspaper matrixes to Leningrad. The Russian part of WWII had broken out the night before, but there was nothing in the papers. An air battle had been in progress in the night sky near Leningrad since 3:20 am. The war changed everyone’s plans for that summer and for many years to come. Pilots were entrusted with the most critical, dangerous and challenging transportation missions. The air route to besieged Leningrad worked like clockwork. Shosseinaya Airport was now at the frontline. Besieged for 900 days, Leningrad fought and won, and so did the Soviet Union.
27 January 1944. The 900-day Siege of Leningrad was lifted, and civilian aviators flew their first peaceful missions to the city. In 1945, the year when WWII ended, Northern Aviation Authority flyers carried 12 000 passengers and hundreds of tons of cargoes.
1949. Shosseinaya Airport served 14 Union-wide and 15 local airlines, having carried 6,305 passengers, over 333 tons of mail and 708 tons of cargoes that year.
1951. A new terminal was opened at Shosseinaya Airport, designed by the architect A.I. Gegello. The airport also received new airplanes: An-2, Il-12 and Il-14. Jets came on the scene in the mid 1950s, requiring special training for both flight crews and engineers. All systems and management chains had to be reengineered. The launch of the new Ilyushin-18 turboprop and Tupolev-104 jet spelled a new milestone in the history of Leningrad’s airport.
15 March 1959. On that day, Northern Aviation Authority’s passenger flight under No. 42419 by a Tu-104b jet made history, signifying the start of regular jet flights. From then on, the aircraft fleet would be quickly augmented with new plane makes and navigation equipment.
1965. Bigger, faster passenger planes hit the airways. An-24 and Yak-40 flew to Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Petrozavodsk. The Leningrad Airport was growing fast. Locals could now fly thousands of miles to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Vladivostok at the other end of the country. There were some 100 crews flying Il-18 planes by the end of the 1970s.
The new BSU ZP systems allowed jet liners to land on autopilot in challenging weather conditions defined within ICAO Category I. As auto landing spread on a mass scale, flights became safer and more regular. The arrival of new plane makes such as Tu-124 and Tu-134 consolidated and accelerated technological advancement.
8 February 1971. The Leningrad Airport was awarded the Order of the October 1917 Revolution.
1973. Passengers on the night flight of April 24 and 25 heard the name «Pulkovo Airport» for the first time. Passenger traffic was now up 1.4 times, and cargo traffic, 1.5 times. Tu-104, Il-18 and Tu-124 were replaced by newer, better An-24, Yak-42, Tu-134 and Tu-154. The heavy-duty An-12 became the prime cargo mover.
11 April 1986. The crew of a TU-154 jet was the first to fly out of the new Pulkovo 2 air terminal with passengers headed for Berlin. The two new, modern and roomy buildings flanked the old pre-war terminal like wings. After the new terminal opened for business, aviators could now serve double the number of international passengers they had served before.
In 1990, Pulkovo Airport served some 10 million passengers — a yet unbroken record for the airport.
2005 will make Pulkovo history as the year when the airport became an independent company, having separated from the airline. Before, the two had been one and the same company.
In July 2009, Northern Capital Gateway Ltd. Consortium consisting of VTB Capital, Fraport AG (the owner and operator of Frankfurt airport) and Copelouzos (investment and business group, Greece) won the open tender for the right to conclude an agreement on the development, reconstruction and operation of Pulkovo airport.
29 April 2010. Northern Capital Gateway Ltd. Consortium started management of Pulkovo airport operation activity.
«Times, they are a-changing…» Now, nearly 78 years on, when the 21st century is upon us, Pulkovo Airport remains abreast of the times, looking to the future with confidence.
