Balakovo Airport guide

Balakovo Airport sits on the Volga steppe south of the city of Balakovo, in Saratov Oblast. Regular flights began from an older soil airstrip in 1956. A new airport with a concrete runway opened in December 1984, built in part because the nearby Balakovo nuclear power plant required a restricted airspace zone. The 2,500-metre runway was long enough for Tu-154 and Il-76 aircraft.

Scheduled service dwindled after the Soviet Union ended. By 1994 the airport had a single Moscow route, with a few flights to Yekaterinburg, Sochi and other cities in 1995 and 1996. Regular flights stopped in 1999, and the airfield was removed from Russia's register of civil aerodromes in 2001. It handles no passenger traffic today, and the nearest operating airport with scheduled flights is Saratov Gagarin.

The Saratov Oblast Ministry of Transport became sole owner of the operating company, Aeroport Balakovo LLC, in May 2025. Reconstruction began in August 2025. The plan covers a 2.5-kilometre runway, taxiways, an apron with five aircraft stands and a passenger terminal of about 7,740 square metres. Contractors are due to finish by mid-November 2027.