Vnukovo International Airport
Vnukovo International Airport
Vnukovo International Airport (Internal code: ???, IATA: VKO, ICAO: UUWW) is a dual-runway international airport located in Vnukovo District, 28 km (17 mi) southwest of the centre of Moscow, Russia. It is one of the four major airports that serve Moscow, along with Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky. In 2019, the airport handled 24.01 million passengers, representing an increase of 12% compared to the previous year. Vnukovo was the eleventh-busiest airport in Europe in 2021 but had a strong decline in traffic and dropped to 30th place in 2022 as a consequence of sanctions following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As of 2025 it is the 3rd busiest airport in Russia and Post-Soviet states as well as the 41st-busiest airport in Europe. The airport was formally named "Vnukovo Andrei Tupolev International Airport", after Andrei Tupolev.
Location
55.591°N, 37.262°E · 209 m s. n. m. (685 ft)
General data
Runways · 2
Lengths and surfaces from the public OurAirports register; open runways only.
Radio frequencies · 5
Tower
Ground
ATIS (automatic information)
Approach
Reference frequencies for enthusiasts, from OurAirports (community database, public domain), checked on Oct 16, 2026. They may be outdated or incomplete and do not replace the AIP or current charts: not for navigation. In Europe the published frequency may be an 8.33 kHz channel (e.g., 118.505 for 118.500). In MHz.
History
Vnukovo is Moscow's oldest operating airport. It was opened and used for military operations during the Second World War but became a civilian facility after the war. Its construction was approved by the Soviet government in 1937 because the older Khodynka Aerodrome (located much closer to the city centre, but closed by the 1980s) was becoming overloaded.
On 15 September 1956, the Tupolev Tu-104 jetliner made its first passenger flight from Moscow Vnukovo to Irkutsk via Omsk.
On 4 November 1957, a plane carrying Romanian Workers' Party officials, including the most prominent politicians of Communist Romania (Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Chivu Stoica, Alexandru Moghioroș, Ştefan Voitec, Nicolae Ceauşescu, Leonte Răutu, and Grigore Preoteasa), was involved in an accident at Vnukovo Airport. Preoteasa, who was the minister of foreign affairs at the time, was killed, as was the aircraft's crew. Several others were seriously injured.
The first passenger flights of the IL-18 (Moscow to Alma-Ata on 20 April 1956) and Tu-114 (Moscow to Khabarovsk on 24 April 1961) were also made from Vnukovo Airport. In 1980, Vnukovo was expanded because of the 22nd Summer Olympic Games. In 1993, Vnukovo Airport became a joint-stock company.
A massive reconstruction and strategic development programme commenced at Vnukovo International in late 2003, following the transfer by the federal government of the controlling stake in the airport to the government of Moscow.
As part of the Airport Strategic Development Plan, these projects were completed between 2003 and 2005:
April 2004: New Terminal B was opened. The terminal currently handles international passengers, but in the future, it will be converted to handle domestic flights or to fulfill any other dedicated functions to be determined at a later date. The terminal's total floor space offering stands at 80,000 m2 (861,113 sq ft)), allowing for an annual passenger throughput capacity of four million.
August 2005: Vnukovo's express rail link to Kiyevsky Rail Terminal was opened.
December 2010: New Terminal A was opened.
Summer 2016: All flights served by Terminal B were transferred into Terminal A, and Terminal B was closed.
Vnukovo is Europe's busiest airport for international flights by larger private planes.
Airlines operating here · 31
Airlines using it as a main base (hub)
Other airlines with direct routes
Airlines with current passenger routes from here, according to Wikipedia route tables cross-checked from both ends (October 2026).
Photo: mos.ru · CC BY 4.0 · view original
Data from OurAirports (public domain) · destinations and airlines from Wikipedia route tables (CC BY-SA, 2026), unless another source is given · profile and photo from Wikidata/Wikimedia Commons (CC0 / CC) · summary and history from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
Cite
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This page was last updated on October 15, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 15). Vnukovo International Airport (VKO). Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/VKO
MLA
“Vnukovo International Airport (VKO).” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 15 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airport/VKO. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “Vnukovo International Airport (VKO).” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 15, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/VKO.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) Vnukovo International Airport (VKO). Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/VKO (Accessed: 17 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_airport_vko,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{Vnukovo International Airport (VKO)}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-15},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/VKO},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/VKO}},
urldate = {2026-10-17},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-17}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/VKO |title=Vnukovo International Airport (VKO) |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-15 |access-date=2026-10-17 |language=en}}