Aktobe Airport: history and facts

Aktobe Aliya Moldagulova Airport (kz. Әлия Молдағұлова халықаралық әуежайы) is an air harbor of Western Kazakhstan, serving both domestic and international flights, and located at the intersection of air routes from Western Europe to Central and South Asia.

1. Aktobe airport began its work in 1933, the infrastructure was limited to a small train station, a small house for pilots and a field for take-off and landing of aircraft.

2. In 2004, a major reconstruction of the airport terminal and runway was carried out.

3. In 2021, the airport was named after Aliya Moldagulova, a Soviet sniper girl, participant of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union. Memorials have been opened in honor of Aliya and streets have been named in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Almaty, Nur-Sultan, Shymkent and Aktobe.

4. There have been aviation disasters in the history of the airport. In 1942, a DC-2 plane carrying out a Tashkent-Chkalov flight crashed in the Aktobe region, two people died. In 1958, after a lightning strike, an IL-14P crashed en route from Aktobe to Uralsk, 27 dead. In 2013, a military plane crashed while landing at Aktobe airport.