OREANDA-NEWS. On 06 July 2009 was announced, that in summer of 1932 the first aircrafts from Moscow landed at the Shosseynaya aerodrome (the old name of the airport) – the new era of civil aviation in the USSR began. The development of regional aviation and first flights to Lodeynoje Pole, Voznesenije, Vytegra, Petrozavodsk were gradually expanded by more distant routes. Airlines connected Leningrad with Tallinn, Riga, Kiev, Konigsberg and even Berlin.

In the 40-s during the blockade the aerodrome was closed. The defence line ran along Pulkovskie Vysoti and the aerodrome Shosseynaya was the first one to be subject of the enemy firing. Because of big damages there was made a decision to shift the aerodrome to Komendantskiy and Smolniy aerodromes. But already in 1945 civil aircrafts appeared in the pilots’ town again. The small group of the aerodrome managed to carry more than 3 thousand passengers in the last year of war.

The active development of aviation began in peaceful time. In the 60-s the era of jets began. Aviators made the longest air route in the country: from Leningrad to Vladivostok. Aircraft TU-104 overcame the distance for 13 hours and 25 min. making the top-ups in Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk and Irkutsk.

The new stage of development began for the airport in 1973. In April the new passenger terminal was opened and the airport got its modern name – “Pulkovo”. Along with the opening of the airport building specialists began the exploitation of the second runway. Pulkovo was able to except up to 120 aircrafts.

The reconstruction of the international terminal Pulkovo-2 was made in 1986. On each side of the prewar building built in 1936-1940 two pavilions stretched out which divided the flows of arriving and departing passengers.

In 2006 the general plan of the airport development was worked out till 2025. It provides for the building of modern passenger terminal, the development of close-fitting infrastructure and complex modernization of the aerodrome. In 2007 the unique architectural project was worked out for the building of new passenger terminal of Pulkovo airport. The realization of plans for the airport development has begun.

Nowadays the airport complex Pulkovo is the largest one in the North-West. On average more than 250 flights is handled in the airport per day. Last year more than 7 million passengers were handled at the airport.

The administration of JSC “Pulkovo Airport" congratulates all the colleagues and veterans on 77th anniversary of the enterprise! The part of every of you is put in continuous work securing of the Petersburg airport on a twenty-four hour basis, day by day. We wish you professional success, aspirations and strengths in everyday work.