Buyant-Ukhaa International Airport
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Buyant-Ukhaa International Airport, formerly called Chinggis Khaan International Airport from 2005 to 2020 , is a semi-operational
international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports, and feature longer runways and have faciliti ...
serving
Ulaanbaatar Ulaanbaatar is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities in Mongolia, most populous city of Mongolia. It has a population of 1.6 million, and it is the coldest capital city in the world by average yearly temperature. The municipa ...
,
Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...
, situated southwest of the capital. Largely replaced by a new airport, it currently functions as a backup airport for the former, with a view to being used for flight training as well as for special, charter, and government flights.


History


Development

The airport was first established as Buyant-Ukhaa Central Airport on 19 February 1957. In 1958, international flights began with flights to
Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...
and Beijing using
Ilyushin Il-14 The Ilyushin Il-14 (NATO reporting name: Crate) is a Soviet twin-engine commercial and military personnel and cargo transport aircraft that first flew in 1950 in aviation, 1950, and entered service in 1954. The Il-14 was also manufactured in East ...
aircraft. Regular flights from the airport started in 1961. The terminal was upgraded to make it suitable for international traffic in 1986. Following the Mongolian Revolution of 1990 and between 1994 and 1997 a further major upgrade of construction and air navigation was achieved with the assistance of the
Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank to promote social and economic development in Asia. The bank is headquartered in Metro Manila, Philippines and maintains 31 field offices around the world. The bank was establishe ...
, making the airport compliant with
ICAO The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international sch ...
standards. The US$50 million construction project was carried out by the successful bidder: a German / English joint venture of Philipp Holzmann and Wimpey Asphalt. The airport was renamed after Chinggis Khaan (Genghis Khan) to Chinggis Khaan International Airport to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the establishment of a Mongolian State on 21 December 2005. The airport achieved steady growth during the 2000s, with passenger numbers first reaching 1 million in 2012, and reaching a peak of 1.6 million in 2019, before collapsing due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.


Replacement airport

The airport was replaced by the opening of the new Ulaanbaatar International Airport in 2021. Buyant-Ukhaa is somewhat restricted, the single runway is used in one direction for arriving aircraft and in the opposite direction for departures. The new airport significantly expands capacity, and is located at the Khoshigt Valley, south of Ulaanbaatar city center. With the new airport named ''Chinggis Khaan International Airport'', Buyant-Ukhaa reverted to its former name on July 1, 2020. In May 2023, it hosted the Buyant-Ukhaa Airshow, the first airshow exhibited in the country.


Former airlines and destinations


Statistics


Traffic figures


Top destinations


Other facilities

The airline Aero Mongolia has its head office on the third floor of the main airport building. The Air Accident Investigation Bureau Mongolia has its head office on the airport property.Address of Accident Investigation Authorities as of March 2010
." Air Accident Investigation Bureau. Retrieved on 11 May 2011. "Mongolia Air Accident Investigation Bureau Mongolia Ministry of Road, Transportation, Construction and Urban Development of Mongolia Chinggis Khaan International Airport Ulaanbaatar 34 Mongolia"
There is also one cargo hangar.


See also

*
List of airports in Mongolia This is a list of airports in Mongolia, grouped by type and sorted by location. Airports Airport names shown in bold indicate the airport has scheduled service on commercial airlines. See also *Transport in Mongolia *List of airports by ICAO ...
* List of airlines of Mongolia


Notes


References


External links


Official website

Civil Aviation Authority of Mongolia

Aeronautical Information Publication
* * {{authority control 1961 establishments in Mongolia Defunct airports Airports in Mongolia Airports established in 1961 Buildings and structures in Ulaanbaatar Khan Uul Transport in Ulaanbaatar