Bratsk Airport

Bratsk Airport (Russian: Аэропорт Братск) (IATA: BTK, ICAO: UIBB) is an airport in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia located 8 kilometres (5 mi) north of Bratsk. It is a mixed use airfield, providing 32 parking spaces for medium-sized airliners, as well as a large number of branched fighter revetments.

Bratsk airport serves as a diversion airport on Polar route 2.

The 350 IAP (350th Interceptor Aviation Regiment) arrived in 1984 with a number of Tupolev Tu-128 (Fiddler) aircraft. Bratsk was responsible for air defense of most of the Siberian interior region and depended on the long-range capability of the Tu-128 to cover this vast territory. By the 1990s the unit had been upgraded with MiG-31 jets. The 350 IAP was disbanded in 2002.

Currently Bratsk continues to serve a vital civil aviation role as a staging base for cargo flights to Kamchatka. Recent Google Imagery showed 7 Ilyushin Il-76 jets parked on the tarmac. The airport is operated by AeroBratsk, its major civilian tenant.

Airlines and destinations

Bratsk

Bratsk (Russian: Братск; IPA: [bratsk]) is a city in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Angara River near the vast Bratsk Reservoir. Population: 246,319 (2010 Census); 259,335 (2002 Census); 255,705 (1989 Census).

Etymology

Although the name sounds like the Russian word for "brother" ("брат", brat), it actually comes from 'bratskiye lyudi', an old name for the Buryats.

History

The first Europeans in the area arrived in 1623, intending to collect taxes from the local Buryat population. Permanent settlement began with the construction of an ostrog (fortress) in 1631 at the junction of the Oka and Angara rivers. Several wooden towers from the 17th-century fort are now exhibited in Kolomenskoye Estate of Moscow.

During World War II, there was an increase in industrial activity in Siberia, as Soviet industry was moved to the lands east of the Ural Mountains. After the war's end, development slowed as resources were required in the rebuilding of European Russia.

In 1947, the Gulag Angara prison labor camp was constructed near Bratsk, with capacity for up to 44,000 prisoners for projects such as the construction of the railway from Tayshet to Ust-Kut via Bratsk (now the western section of the Baikal-Amur Mainline).