Kaliningrad Airport is the most western airgate of the Russian Federation. It takes many flights from other cities of our country. After all, traveling by air to this enclave means avoiding a lot of trouble with a foreign passport, a visa and crossing the border. In principle, the airport already has international status, planes from the CIS countries land in it. But soon there must be built a hub for passengers traveling to Western Europe. Kaliningrad's airport has a very interesting history. Her, as well as other significant and useful facts about this air terminal, we will discuss in this article.
When Kaliningrad was still called Koenigsberg andbelonged to Germany, he also had his own civil terminal. It is noteworthy that earlier, during the First World War, there were many military air bases, but for ordinary passengers the way to the sky was rather thorny. Germany is one of the countries that decided to allow civilians to travel by air. And its first airport, called Devau (Devau), the state built not somewhere in Berlin, but in Koenigsberg. This happened in the distant 1919. In 1921, the world's first stationary aeronautical meteorological service opened here to service aircraft. But that's not all interesting facts about Devau. The country of the Soviets, which for a long time was in international isolation, sent its first civilian flight here. In 1922, a plane landed in Devau, making a successful flight Moscow - Riga - Koenigsberg. After the liberation of the city from the fascist invaders and the transfer of the enclave to the Soviet Union in accordance with the Potsdam Treaty, they began to build a new airport in Kaliningrad. But Devau did not become desolate. Now there operates an aviation museum and hosts the base of the local flying club DOSAAF.
The new civilian airport was decided to build onnorth-east of the city, since most flights were supposed to come from Moscow. The choice fell on the village of Khrabrovo, which is located about twenty kilometers from the city center. All the property from Devalu, which could be transported, was transported to a new location. Until 1961, Kaliningrad's airport was still operated as a military base for a joint air squadron. In 1977, the runway began to receive civil aircraft TU-134. And only in 1979 was built a terminal for passengers. reconstruction of the runway so that she was able to take a heavy airliner Tu-154 was held in 1988. The covering with asphalt concrete was very useful, because the era of "Boeing" has come. Now the westernmost gate of Russia is able to receive heavy liners weighing more than a hundred tons. Such giants, for example, as "Boeing-737".
The current airport building began to build in 2004,and finished in 2007. Thus, the civil terminal meets all modern requirements for passenger service. The building is two-storey, but it is simply impossible to get lost in it. Firstly, the layout of the premises hangs everywhere. About the arrivals and departures you will be informed by the help desk of the airport of Kaliningrad. Expect your flight will not be boring. For those who travel outside the country, a duty-free shop operates. The building has a special place for smoking, which is surprising for airports. Foreign guests can pass the time in a special waiting room.
The Kaliningrad region is an enclave. Therefore, all passengers arriving here, pass during passport control. But it is enough for Russian citizens to produce an internal document. If you are going to go further to the west, that is, arrived in transit, you need a passport. For the safety of passengers and aircraft during boarding on the flight you need to pass control. Registration takes place depending on the airline. Since the city is separated from the hub by twenty kilometers, it is worth arriving to Kaliningrad airport in advance. How to get to your front desk - find out by the scoreboard in front of the entrance.
Numerous flights link Khrabrovo withother airports in Russia. From the capital here fly from Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo. Kaliningrad is also connected to St. Petersburg, Murmansk, Cherepovets, Krasnodar, Kazan and Belgorod. From the countries of near abroad from here airplanes fly to Kiev, Tashkent, Minsk, Bishkek and Riga. For the time being, non-regular charter flights to Copenhagen (Scandinavian Airlines) and Berlin are departing from Hrabrov to Western Europe. But in the future it is planned to open new directions. Now Khrabrovo has a capacity of three million passengers a year. But in order to become a full-fledged international terminal, it needs to improve the infrastructure, in particular, transport communication. So far, only the bus "Kaliningrad-airport" No. 144 and minibus shuttle run. The fare is about 50 rubles.
To get to the city you can, of course, and by taxi. This is the fastest way, but it costs 250 rubles a day and 400 rubles at night. Buses run every forty minutes. Rented car to the city center is easily reached by the Primorskoe ring road (the journey time is about fifteen minutes). In the future, it is planned to launch a railway express from Kaliningrad station to the airport, especially since the railway line Zelenogorsk-Svetlogorsk-Kaliningrad has already been laid to Khrabrov. There are plans to build a hotel complex at the airport.
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