Moscow’s Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, and Vnukovo airports on maximal security alert due to ‘direct threats’

Three key Moscow airports — Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, and Vnukovo — are operating on maximal security alert since November 10. Izvestiya was first to report this on November 16. Rostransnadzor, the Russian state transportation agency, confirms this information.

Maximal security protocols are implemented when an airport is believed to be under “direct threat” of “unlawful disruption” in its operations, as prescribed by a 2020 state order on transportation safety.

Rostransnadzor deputy head Vladimir Chertok explains that maximal alert regime comes into effect when there are “extra threats to flight safety.” The regime can remain in effect for 15 days, and can then be extended. “This means nothing for the passengers,” he said: the only difference is that passengers have to show up for their flights “a little earlier” — three hours ahead of schedule.

The Domodedovo press service explains that, when in effect, the high security alert regime triggers “a complex of safety measures.” Vnukovo airport staff note that luggage inspection at the airport is more thorough than usual, but nothing else has changed in the way they service passengers.

The St. Petersburg Pulkovo airport is also on high security alert, and plans to extend the regime until November 24. Security was tightened at Pulkovo following the October 28 incident, when a 33-year-old man drove his Opel Astra through the airport fence and drove out to the airplane parking area.

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