Gagarin International Airport guide

Gagarin International Airport opened on 20 August 2019, replacing Saratov Central Airport, which had operated since 1931 until urban growth left it no room to expand. The new airport takes its name from cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who trained at a Saratov flying club in the 1950s and parachuted to earth near the city after his 1961 orbital flight, landing in a field he recognized from his own training jumps.

Built on open steppe northeast of the city as part of a public-private partnership between the federal government, the Saratov Oblast government and the Airports of Regions holding, the airport is one of only a few built from scratch in post-Soviet Russia. SarAero-Invest operates the facility, itself managed by Airports of Regions, which also runs several other Russian regional airports. A single 3,000-metre runway earned ICAO Category II certification in November 2020, allowing landings in low visibility.

Traffic has grown steadily since opening, climbing from 258,000 passengers in 2019 to 1.15 million in 2024, more than double the 481,800 passengers the old Saratov Central Airport handled in its busiest year. Aeroflot, Rossiya, Pobeda and S7 Airlines carry most of the domestic traffic, while seasonal and charter services add international routes to destinations such as Yerevan, Baku and Antalya.