Ğabdulla Tuqay Kazan International Airport (, ; IATA: KZN, ICAO: UWKD) is an

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 ...

in Russia, around 25 km southeast of

Kazan Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...

. It is the largest airport in

Tatarstan Tatarstan, officially the Republic of Tatarstan, sometimes also called Tataria, is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. It is a part of the Volga Federal District; and its capital city, capital and largest city i ...

and one of the busiest airports in Russia as well as in

Post-Soviet States The post-Soviet states, also referred to as the former Soviet Union or the former Soviet republics, are the independent sovereign states that emerged/re-emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Prior to their independence, they ...

. Kazan International Airport served more than 5 million passengers in 2023. In 2019 Airport was renamed to commemorate a

Volga Tatar The Volga Tatars or simply Tatars (; ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the Volga-Ural region of western Russia. They are subdivided into various subgroups. Volga Tatars are the second-largest ethnic group in Russia after ethnic Russians. ...

poet, critic, publisher, and towering figure of

Tatar literature Tatar literature () consists of literature in the Tatar language, a Turkic language spoken in the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. Tatar literature is a part of Tatar society and has been part of Tatar history since the existence of a Tatar ...

Ğabdulla Tuqay Ğabdulla Möxəmmətğərif ulı Tuqay () was a Volga Tatars, Volga Tatar poet, critic, publisher, and towering figure of Tatar literature. Tuqay is often referred to as the founder of modern Tatar literature and the modern Tatar literary lang ...

History

Kazan 2 was completed on 15 September 1979. On 28 September 1984, Kazan 1 (located inside the city) was shut down, and Kazan 2 was renamed Kazan Domestic Airport. On 21 February 1986, Kazan Airport gained international rank. This was a drastic announcement because the

USSR Council of Ministers The Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( rus, Совет министров СССР, r=Sovet Ministrov SSSR, p=sɐˈvʲet mʲɪˈnʲistrəf ˌɛsˌɛsˌɛsˈɛr), sometimes abbreviated as Sovmin or referred to as the ...

only rarely allowed its citizens to fly out of the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. In 1991, after the

fall of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of Nationalities, Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. :s: ...

, the Tatarstan region separated from the USSR's single

Aeroflot PJSC AeroflotRussian Airlines (, ), commonly known as Aeroflot ( or ; , , ), is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Russia. Aeroflot is headquartered in the Central Administrative Okrug, Moscow, with its hub being Sheremetyevo Interna ...

airline and created Tatarstan Airlines. This airline didn't gain an efficient amount of investments in its 22 years of service, and its operating license was officially terminated on 31 December 2013 after a

disaster A disaster is an event that causes serious harm to people, buildings, economies, or the environment, and the affected community cannot handle it alone. '' Natural disasters'' like avalanches, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires are caused by na ...

. On 26 October 1992, Kazan got its first international regular flight: Kazan – Istanbul – Kazan. This flight was (and still is) operated by

Turkish Airlines Turkish Airlines (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Türk Hava Yolları''), or legally Türk Hava Yolları Anonim Ortaklığı, is the flag carrier of Turkey. , it operates scheduled services to 352 destinations (including cargo) in Europe, Asia, Oce ...

and 145 annual trips are made to and from Istanbul, making it the most popular international route. In 2008, Tatarstan's president,

Mintimer Shaimiev Mintimer Sharipovich Shaimiev (born 20 January 1937) is a Russian former politician who served as the president of Tatarstan from 1991 to 2010. He was re-elected as president in 1996, 2001, and 2005. Biography Shaimiev was born in the villag ...

, after winning the bid for the

2013 Summer Universiade The 2013 Summer Universiade, officially known as the XXVII Summer Universiade (; ), was held in the city of Kazan, Russia, the most northerly city ever to host a Summer Universiade. Over 10,400 university athletes from 162 countries participated ...

, began creating a set of major reform projects in Kazan. Apart from repairing the streets, bringing in investments, the integrating English language, and improving the bus route system in Kazan, Shaimiev also began to completely redesign Kazan's airport. He designed the blueprints for Terminal 1A and planned out the complete refining of the airport between 2008 and 2025. Shaimiev's successor and today's president of Tatarstan,

Rustam Minnikhanov Rustam Nurgaliyevich Minnikhanov (born 1 March 1957) is a Russian politician who has served as the head of Tatarstan, a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia, since 2010. Early life and education Rustam Minnikhanov was born on 1 ...

, used the blueprints, which were made in 2009, to begin the construction of Terminal 1A and a complete redesign of Terminal 1 (essentially also a new reconstruction). First, a new 3,700-meter runway was built, and edge lights were added on both of the runways. This made it possible for the airport to operate 24/7. In 2012, a new airport fire station was built. In 2012, the construction of Terminal 1A began. Later that year, Terminal 1 began its own renovation. Terminal 1A was officially opened on 7 November 2012. Terminal 1 finished renovations on 22 June 2013. Today, the new airport has more than 30

check-in Check-in is the process whereby people announce their arrival at an office, hotel, airport, hospital, port, seaport or event. Office check-in Many offices have a reception or front office area near the entrance to greet or assist visitors arriv ...

slots and seven

conveyor belt A conveyor belt is the carrying medium of a belt conveyor system (often shortened to a belt conveyor). A belt conveyor system consists of two or more pulleys (sometimes referred to as drums), with a closed loop of carrying medium—the conveyor b ...

s. It has three separate duty-free shops, selling merchandise such as alcohol, cigars and cigarettes, chocolates. It offers popular brands such as

Costa coffee Costa Limited, trading as Costa Coffee, is a coffeehouse chain with headquarters in Loudwater, Buckinghamshire, England, that operates in the United Kingdom and 37 other countries. Costa Coffee was founded in London in 1971 by Sergio Costa (co ...

. The airport can sustain around three million passengers. Further expansions and the creation of Terminal 2 will occur before the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

. Following the Skytrax Airport and Airline Awards, Kazan Airport was nominated for 4 stars in 2014 and was called Russia's and CIS's best airport. Following the opening of new air routes and an increase in flights through existing routes, the Kazan Airport reached a record of 2.5 million passengers transported in less than a year at the beginning of December 2017.

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

Passenger statistics

Arrivals and departures

Cargo handled

Other facilities

Tatarstan Airlines had its head office on the airport property.

Accidents and incidents

On 17 November 2013,

Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight, operated by Tatarstan Airlines on behalf of Ak Bars Aero, from Moscow to Kazan, Russia. On 17 November 2013, at local time (UTC+4), the Boeing 737-500 crashed during an ab ...

, a

Boeing 737-500 The Boeing 737 Classic is a series of narrow-body airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the second generation of the Boeing 737 series of aircraft. Development began in 1979 and the first variant, the 737-300, first flew in Febru ...

, operating for Tatarstan Airlines, crashed while attempting to land at the airport. All 44 passengers and six crew members died. Investigations revealed the pilot had not completed his primary flight training, a revelation which then led Russia's

Federal Air Transport Agency The Federal Air Transport Agency ( - ''Federalnoye agentstvo vozdushnogo transporta'', FAVT), also known as Rosaviatsiya (), is the civil aviation authority of the Russia, Russian Federation, responsible for overseeing the civil aviation industr ...

(Rosaviatsiya) to revoke hundreds of pilots' licenses. On 21 December 2016, a man drove his car through the airport's terminal while under the influence of drugs, causing an estimated () in damage. The suspect, identified as Ruslan Nurtdinov, was charged with violating traffic rules, endangerment, and drug trafficking.

References

External links

*
Ğabdulla Tuqay Kazan International Airport official website
{{authority control Airports built in the Soviet Union Airports in Tatarstan Transport in Kazan Buildings and structures in Kazan