12.09.2025, Moscow.
In the heart of Russia, authorities were forced to learn how to manage air transportation under regular attacks by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and this experience made it possible to return to the issue of reopening airports in southern Russia, Rossa Primavera News Agency‘s Southern Russia Desk wrote on September 11.
On September 11, Governor of Krasnodar Krai Veniamin Kondratyev announced that, starting September 17, Krasnodar airport will resume operations. It had been closed since February 2022, when Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine began.
“The issues of ensuring the safety of civilian flights to Krasnodar airport were developed by an interdepartmental task force formed on the basis of Rosaviatsiya [Federal Air Transport Agency]. The possibility of flights to the capital of Kuban was also confirmed by specialists of the State Corporation for Air Traffic Management, which reports to the agency,” the Russian Ministry of Transport noted.
The decision to reopen Krasnodar airport may seem unexpected. However, if we look at the course of events over the past two years, it becomes clear that work in this direction has been systematically carried out. It even reached the stage of a test flight at the end of 2023. And in July 2025, the neighboring Gelendzhik airport was fully launched.
During the three years of downtime, the airport’s infrastructure was updated, terminals were repaired, and navigation and parking areas were improved.
Why did reopening the airport become possible? There are two reasons, and naturally both are related to security issues.
First, in general, the conditions of air transportation in western Russia have changed significantly over the past couple of years. At the beginning of the special military operation, Ukraine posed less of a threat to Russian regions. 11 airports closest to Ukraine were closed, but others could continue to operate relatively safely (although flights, for example, from Sochi had to take a major detour over the Volga, they were still possible). Now, however, Ukrainian drones penetrating deep inside Russia (Moscow Region, Leningrad, Murmansk, Saratov, Samara Regions, and others) no longer surprise anyone.
Faced with constant aerial threats, airports in Moscow, Saratov, Samara, St. Petersburg, Kaluga, and other cities have learned to operate effectively. Relevant action protocols have been developed. In this sense, Krasnodar airport is not much different from Moscow airports. Drones may appear both there and here, but protocols already exist. This likely encouraged authorities to begin the process of reopening southern airports, which have faced transportation difficulties since 2022.
Second, regular mass raids have led to a significant reinforcement of air defense forces over the three years of the special military operation. Authorities have assessed the risks of aviation incidents as acceptably low.
It is very likely that the next step will be reopening Rostov-on-Don airport. The only question is when.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
