Airport "Severny" used to be the only airport in a large Siberian city - Novosibirsk. Then it began to operate simultaneously with another airport - Tolmachevo, and in 2011 it simply stopped its work.
Airport significance
Severny Airport, which residents of the city often called simply the City Airport, was built in 1929 within the boundaries of Novosibirsk: it was only about 5 km from the city center, so it was quite possible to get here by public transport, for example, a trolleybus. For almost 30 years, until 1957, it remained the only air hub in the city, until a larger complex, Tolmachevo airport, was built.
After the opening of the latter, the airport "Severny", which was significantly inferior to it in size and throughput, faded into the background in terms of its transport significance. It began to receive and send mainly domestic flights, while the entire volume of international air traffic, directly connecting Novosibirsk with other states, was transferred to Tolmachevo. Nevertheless, in Soviet times, the volume of domestic air traffic, which provided the movement of citizens within a large country, was significant enough to provide an acceptable load for the Severny airport.
Airport today
The situation changed markedly with the collapse of the Soviet Union, when domestic air traffic significantly decreased, concentrating mainly on main routes, such as the Novosibirsk-Moscow route. As a result, the city airport has been causing losses for several years, and the owner decided to stop its operation. Officially, the departure and reception of flights at the Severny airport was suspended on February 1, 2011, and since then they have not resumed.
Currently, the role of the airport in the life of the city looks somewhat vague. On the one hand, it retains its relationship with aviation: for example, the Novosibirsk Aircraft Repair Plant is still located on its premises, and the former airport runways are sometimes used for takeoff and landing of helicopters. On the other hand, the large vacant areas of the airport attract the attention of organizers of a wide variety of events, such as music festivals, car races and others.
The city authorities have their own views on the possible direction of the development of this territory: in the next 15 years they plan to build a residential neighborhood here, thereby using the empty spaces to create new housing. However, the airport building itself is supposed to be preserved as an architectural monument.
