Kaluga International Airport, located 150 kilometers southwest of Moscow, reopened to commercial traffic on Tuesday, June 16 following roughly fourteen years of neglect and inactivity.

A town press release says Komiaviatrans (KMA, Syktyvkar) is now offering a 3x weekly return service to St. Petersburg as well as a weekly return flight to Sochi using E145 equipment.

Commissioned in 1970, Kaluga airport served as a stop-over for Aeroflot (SU, Moscow Sheremetyevo) on flights to destinations in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, the Baltic states, and Crimea. Though it was one of the first Russian airports to become a joint stock company in 1993, in 2001 it was forced to close owing to a lack of funding.

Following years of neglect, the airport was transferred to the Kaluga Region Government on the instruction of the Russian Government in 2009. Reconstruction works subsequently commenced in 2013 culminating in the opening of a 2,200x45m-long runway by Petro Hehua OOO, China, in late 2014.

Capable of handling A319-100 and B737 aircraft, the airport intends to offer longhaul flights to other Russian airports as well as airports in Europe, Asia and Africa.