Airport History
In 1977 in the environs of the Belarusian capital the building of the new airport "Minsk-2" was begun. In 1979 the new runway 3640 m long and 60 m wide was put into operation. In 1981 the airdrome "Minsk-2" was already able to handle aircrafts in 1982 the airport was opened. The first passenger flight was operated on the plane TU-134 under the direction of the crew commander Vasiliy A. Tolstik. 11 years later the airport was completely built. The terminal of the unique architectural project with the carrying capacity – 5,8 million passengers a year was put into operation.
The building of the air terminal complex
The first buildings of the airport
The regular flights began from 1983, in 1990 the passenger traffic reached 2,2 million of passengers. But from 1991 the unexpected decrease of the flights began. That took place because of the USSR’s collapse and other changes caused by this historical event. In 1997 the number of the attended passengers was 516 thousand, in 1998 – 480 thousand, in 2000 – only 400 thousand people.
In 2000 RUE "Minsk National Airport" became a legal successor of the independent enterprise "Airport Minsk-2". At the same time the up-to-date "Siemens" lamp signaling equipment for the take-off and landing strip was put into commission. The equipment made it possible to make landing of the aircraft according to the 2nd ICAO category. The flights are controlled by highly qualified air traffic control officers with the help of the automatic system of the air traffic management "SintezАР2" with the highest level of automation (MONA, SNET, MTSD). The system meets the requirements of EUROCONTROL.