Planes in Irkutsk will fly and land in the very center of the city for at least another three years

Airliners in Irkutsk will fly and land in the very center of the city for at least another three years. The fact is that the airport is located in the city center. This not only calls into question the safety of transportation, but also does not allow the acceptance and release of aircraft of all classes. At the same time, the development of projects that would resolve this issue began back in the 60s. One of the dozens of proposed options is a project to build a new runway for the city's airport.

According to the authors of the development, the new runway, 4,200 meters long, will allow Irkutsk airport to serve aircraft of all classes, while Boeing and other large aircraft cannot land on the existing runway, which is about 2,600 meters long. It is planned that after the construction of the new one, the old lane will be used as an emergency lane or for maneuvers. The authors of the project also say that this project is the cheapest, and if funding is available, it can be implemented in three years. However, there is no investor for this project yet. The construction of a new lane and the extension of the current one are estimated at approximately the same amount - about $140 million.

Now up to two hundred US planes fly over Irkutsk per day. Having two runways will meet the requirements of foreigners whose airports have between two and five runways. However, today some foreign aircraft make intermediate landings, for example, in Krasnoyarsk, Chita, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk. Meanwhile, Irkutsk is more attractive to foreigners in this regard, experts say. The fact is that the city is located practically on the same meridian with the cities of New York, Chicago, Montreal, Bangkok, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Therefore, Irkutsk may also have an advantage over other airports in servicing transpolar flights, since fuel prices are low here.

Today, even empty cargo planes are prohibited from taking off from the Irkutsk airfield, because the runway is short and the plane’s course passes directly over the city. And after the Tu-154 plane crash in Irkutsk in 1994, aircraft takeoffs were only allowed away from the airport.

Meanwhile, the share of Irkutsk Airport in the total volume of air transport in Russia last year was about 3.3% (1999 - 1.3%) for passenger traffic and about 5.8% (1999 - 1.15%) √ on freight transportation. Irkutsk Airport ranks 15th in terms of passenger traffic among all Russian airports and 13th in terms of cargo traffic.