Tiksi Airport Тиксии Аэропорда Tiksii Aeroporta | |||||||||||
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 Satellite imagery of Tiksi Airport | |||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Military | ||||||||||
| Operator | Russian Aerospace Forces | ||||||||||
| Location | Tiksi | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 26 ft / 8 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 71°41′51″N128°54′10″E / 71.69750°N 128.90278°E /71.69750; 128.90278 | ||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||
  IKS Location of the airport in the Sakha Republic | |||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||
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_at_Tiksi_Airport.jpg)
Tiksi Aerodrome (Yakut:Тиксии Аэропорда, Tiksii Aeroporta) (IATA:IKS,ICAO:UEST) is located 1 km (0.6 mi) northeast ofTiksi,Sakha Republic, and was built in the 1950s as astaging base forSovietLong Range Aviation bombers to reach theUnited States (as a so-called 'bounce' aerodrome[clarification needed]). It is used regularly byTupolev Tu-95 aircraft in military exercises, including one in 1999, in which bombers practice travelling to theCanadian arctic.[citation needed] Two other nearby airfields known asTiksi North andTiksi West have been abandoned for decades, and are probably unusable, according to satellite imagery.
The only scheduled service to Tiksi is by anAntonov An-24 turboprop airplane.[citation needed]
The base is home to the Aviation Command,200th Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment with theMil Mi-8 (NATO: Hip) of the326th Heavy Bomber Aviation Division.[1]
_rotates_at_Tiksi.jpg)
The airport was closed without notice on October 1, 2012 by its owner, the Defense Ministry, due to the runway being unsafe and needing repair work.[2] The closure was not coordinated with local or state government. Though the city was connected by winter roads, the loss of air service impaired the delivery of medicine, food and other essential goods, and in February 2013 boilers in the city went out of service for an extended period. The issue rose to the highest levels of Russian government. Prime MinisterDmitri Medvedev said in April 2013 "the Ministry of Defence committed a real mistake to jeopardize the existence of an entire village. This is an outrage.".[3] Negotiations between the Defence Ministry and Yakutia government led to an agreement toAntonov An-24 service starting in June 2013.
 | This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(December 2022) |
Reconstruction of the runway in several phases was scheduled for 2013, with completion by about 2015 or 2016; the current (fall 2023) state of affairs is not clear.
In July 2014,ITAR TASS reportedRoman Filimonov (Head of the Defence Ministry's Construction department), announcing that Russia would be building six military towns in their Arctic region. “These will be closed zones with comfortable living and service conditions,” he said, adding “We’re restoring the infrastructure of the Tiksi airport. We hope that the construction will be completed next year.”[4]
| This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(December 2018) |
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Polar Airlines | Yakutsk |
| Yakutia Airlines | Moscow–Vnukovo,[5]Yakutsk |
