History
The airport was built in 1935, for all small civil/military flying ships. Up to 1990 it was the part of Kazakh Department of Civil Aviation, and then reorganized into "Alma-Ata Airport" in 1991. Since 1993 it has run as an independent business unit. In 1994 it was reorganized into OJSC "Almaty Airport" and later renamed to JSC Almaty International Airport.
The supersonic transport (SST) Tupolev Tu-144 went into service on 26 December 1975, flying mail and freight between Moscow and Alma-Ata in preparation for passenger services, which commenced in November 1977. The Aeroflot flight on 1 June 1978 was the Tu-144's 55th and last scheduled passenger service.
Following a runway reconstruction in 1998, Almaty airport was awarded II category and status of an International Airport.
On 9 July 1999 a fire started in the shashlik kitchen of the airport restaurant. The whole terminal building burned down in just a few hours, fortunately without major injuries. Construction of a new terminal was completed in 2004.
Almaty Airport is a hub for the national carrier Air Astana. It is also a major Central Asian cargo hub.
On September 30, 2008 a second runway was opened with a first departure of a BMI flight bound for London Heathrow. The new runway has also been given an ICAO certificate for CAT III landings which will significantly reduce the number of planes diverting to nearby airfields due to low visibility, especially during the winter months. This runway is the longest in central Asia. The new runway can accept all types of aircraft without limitation of take-off weight and operations frequency. In 2008, the airport handled 2.5 million passengers (23% growth to 2005).
Read more about this topic: Almaty International Airport
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