Sokol Airport

Sokol Airport
Аэропорт Сокол
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator FSUE "Airport Magadan"
Serves Magadan
Location Magadan, Russia
Hub for
Elevation AMSL 574 ft / 175 m
Coordinates 59°54′40″N 150°43′14″E / 59.91111°N 150.72056°E / 59.91111; 150.72056Coordinates: 59°54′40″N 150°43′14″E / 59.91111°N 150.72056°E / 59.91111; 150.72056
Website www.airport-magadan.ru
Map
GDX
Location of airport in Magadan Oblast
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
10/28 11,326 3,452 Concrete
Statistics (2014)
Passengers 350,556
Freight 8,724 ton

Sokol Airport (Russian: Аэропорт Сокол) (IATA: GDX, ICAO: UHMM) is an airport in Sokol in Magadan Oblast, Russia. The airport is located 70 km (43 mi) north of the Magadan city center. The airport is sometimes confused with Dolinsk-Sokol air base in Sakhalin Island, which was home to the fighters that shot down Korean Air Flight 007 in 1983.

History

In 1991, the town gained exposure to the Western world with the inauguration of Alaska Airlines flights to the United States using McDonnell Douglas MD-80 jets. According to an anecdotal story published in the New York Times, the first Alaska Airlines flight needed deicing services, which were unavailable, so the flight crew acquired a quantity of vodka and sprayed it onto the wings.[1] In 1995 the airline threatened to discontinue Russian service due to difficulties with contract workers. Alaska Airlines flights into Magadan and elsewhere in Russia were halted in October 1998 shortly after the 1998 Russian financial crisis, which rendered the routes unprofitable.

Aeroflot suspended flights to Sokol airport on February 1, 2009, due to the planned removal from service of the Tu-154 aircraft. Aeroflot cited the lack of certification of the airport in the acceptance and servicing of more modern aircraft, such as the Airbus A320 and Airbus A330, as the primary reason for the suspension of flights. It resumed service on March 30, 2009.

Flights between Russian Far East and the United States have only been available for some periods. Alternative travel routes would be over Vladivostok or other large Russian cities plus Beijing, Seoul or Tokyo.

Airlines and destinations

AirlinesDestinations
Aeroflot Moscow–Sheremetyevo (ends 28 October 2018)[2]
Aeroflot
operated by Aurora		Khabarovsk
Aeroflot
operated by Rossiya		 Moscow–Vnukovo (ends 28 October 2018),[2] Moscow–Sheremetyevo (begins 28 October 2018)[2]
IrAeroIrkutsk, Keperveyem, Khabarovsk, Severo-Evensk
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Air EnterprisePetropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
S7 Airlines
operated by Globus		Novosibirsk
SiLA Airlines Omolon, Omsukchan, Seymchan, Susuman
Yakutia AirlinesAnadyr, Vladivostok, Yakutsk
Seasonal: Krasnodar, Novosibirsk, Saint Petersburg

Notes

  1. ↑ Alaska Airlines Opens Russia's Wild East, James Brooke, New York Times, March 30, 1997.
  2. 1 2 3 Liu, Jim (31 August 2018). "Rossiya Airlines W18 Moscow service changes". Routesonline. Retrieved 31 August 2018.


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