Airport «Minsk-1»

    The  “Airport Minsk-1” was built in 1933. The first aircraft K-2 made it’s flight from Minsk-1 to Moscow in November,7,1933. That was a great event!

A year later 3 aircraft PO-2 landed  at  the  airport “Minsk-1”. 2 years later, in 1935 the first regular flights were opened between Minsk and 17 regional centers of Belarus. In 1936 was put in operation postal-passenger route Minsk-Moscow.

     Since the liberation of the city in 1944 a renewed airport began to solve only peaceful problems. Former officers and soldiers began to reconstruct the destroyed airport: the airfield, the aircraft’s parking and the radio equipment.
7 years later there was built a new runway with a new hard-surface covering, that allowed to accept the heavier aircraft. Some years later the aircraft PO-2 were substituted for AN-2 and YAK-12. With the advent of these aircraft the passenger flow increased.
In mid 50ties the airport got an international status.
The airport building was erected in 1958 (architects A.Voinov, G. Zaborskiy). On the first floor comfortable restaurant was opened.

The old airport Terminal was built in 1957, a new one – in 1976. Then a new squadron was organized, the head was a honoured military pilot of USSR, Efim Bogdanov. In the 70ties more than 1mln passengers were  using the airport.

In 1970ties on the basis of the airport, The Minsk Aircraft Repair Plant was built – the former civil aeronautic plant №407 that repaired aircrafts TU-134, IAK-40, YAK-42.
The Airport got an international status in 1955 and in the 70ties more than million passengers a year used TU-134, AN-12, AN-24, AN-26, AN-72, AN-74, YAK-40, YAK-42 and all types of helicopters.

At the beginning of the 1980ties the 22 domestic (internal) airlines used aircraft such types as AN-24, IAK-40, AN-2 and 96 airlines that connected Minsk with other cities of former USSR used TU-134, IL-18, AN-10,AN-24, YAK-40. On international flights Minsk-Berlin, Minsk-Warsaw the airport used TU-134A.
In the 1990ties the passenger flow was reduced 35 times.
On the eve of the 70 anniversary the airport began to functionate as before. Only for 4 months 2003 the number of passengers increased by 2.6 times in comparison with the same period of previous year thanks to the flights from Minsk to Kaliningrad.

Currently, the airport "Minsk-1" has positioned itself in the Belarusian market of aviation services as a center for business aviation, serving as the official delegations and individuals arriving in the capital of the Republic of Belarus charter flights. High level of service allows passengers to business aviation spend a minimum time for passage of registration, border and customs checks, and the convenient geographical location of the airport to the city center (5 minutes drive to the nearest metro station and 10 minutes to the railway and bus stations) allows passengers to quickly get to destination.

Ivanov Fyodor
Chairman of the State Committee on aviayii the Republic of Belarus (November, 2000. - February 2005).