Ulan-Ude Airport or Lake Baikal Airport ( ) is an international airport located west of Ulan-Ude, Russia. Airport has one terminal building built in early 1980s with capacity of 400 passengers per hour. There are customs and border control points. The airport has served about 150,000 passengers in 2005.

Reconstruction

In 2006 the airport underwent major runway overhauls costing RUR 330 million (USD 10 million) and another RUR 230 million will be spent in 2007 (finishing works on taxiways and parking areas) . In November, 2006, Russian government announced the decision to create a special economic zone located 170 km away of Ulan-Ude on Baikal lake shore with plans of upgrading the airport. The plans include building runway #2, enlarging runway #1 and improving passenger facilities. These should allow the airport to accommodate 1 million passengers in 2010.

Incidents and accidents

1981 - crash of an Aeroflot flight. An Ulan-Ude (Mukhino)-bound Il-14, overloaded to almost twice of its possible weight lost its way and crashed into a mountain on Lake Baikal's Svyatoi Nos peninsula killing all 52 passengers and crew.

1988 - Aeroflot flight B-478 L-410 bound for Ulan-Ude (Mukhino) crashed into a mountain in very bad weather conditions, killing all 15 passengers and crew.

1989 - crash of Tu-134 on landing at Ulan-Ude (Mukhino) on a delivery flight from near-by Vostochny airport. The aircraft lost a wing and was then destroyed by fire. The crew escaped through a window. The crash was caused by pilot error; in conditions of low visibility the captain landed the plane 300m to the left of the runway.

1995 - Three armed and masked hi-jackers captured Mil Mi-8, which was being prepared for flight, and airport technicians. After ten hours of negotiations special services saved hostages without any fatalities.

2005 - A fire-brigade vehicle hit Sibaviatrans' Tu-134 parked on the tarmac. No one was injured, but the aircraft suffered minor damage.

Airlines and destinations

• Buryat Airlines (Irkutsk, Nizhneangarsk, Taksimo)
• S7 Airlines (Moscow-Domodedovo)
• Yakutia Airlines (Yakutsk)

Aircraft regularly visiting airport include Airbus A319, An-124, An-140, An-2, An-24, Boeing 737-800, Boeing 757-200, Il-76, Tu-154, Mi-8 and other types. KC-135 carrying U.S. inspectors on a START mission may be seen. As of 2007 there are no scheduled international destinations. Aero Mongolia flew scheduled service to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in 2005, although in a few months after beginning it was discontinued. However there are frequent international cargo flights which are served by the port. Ulan-Ude aviation plant generally use Vostochny for helicopter deliveries but sometimes Mukhino engaged in customs and border procedures with cargo liners making extremely short 20 kilometer-run from Vostochny to Mukhino.

References

External links