Minsk-1 Airport


Minsk-1 Airport was a Belarusian airport located within the city limits of Minsk, just a few kilometres south from the centre. It featured one 2000m × 60m runway, enabling aircraft of maximum weight of 63 tons to operate.

History

Minsk-1 was built in 1933. The first aircraft to use the airport was a Kalinin K-5. In 1934, Po-2 aircraft served the airport. In 1935, the first regular routes departing from Minsk-1 to destinations within Belarus were started. In 1936, the first mail and passenger flight to Moscow was established.
During the 1970s, the airport served over one million passengers per year. It was the major airport of Minsk until the new airport Minsk-2, now named Minsk National Airport, opened in 1982.
In February 2006 a decision was made to transfer a Minsk aircraft repair plant situated on the Minsk-1 territory out of the city line. 320 ha of freed land will be transferred to the city authorities for real estate development. Commercial flights was scheduled until 26 October 2012 when flights to Moscow-Vnukovo operated by UTair Aviation moved to the larger Minsk National Airport. The airport officially shut down on 23 December 2015.

Access

It takes about 10 minutes by car or bus to reach the airport from the city centre.