The international airport Platov is the largest infrastructure project of the Rostov region. The airport complex was built in Aksai district, 4 km to the north of the village of Grushevskaya. The new airport is built "from scratch" and will replace the old one, which will be completely decommissioned and integrated into the urban development.

The project for the construction of a new airport complex in Rostov-on-Don is being implemented within the framework of the Federal Program "Development of the Transport System of Russia (2010-2020)" and the Program for the preparation and holding of the 2018 World Cup in the Russian Federation. The project is implemented on the basis of public-private partnership. The project participants are the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, the Federal Air Transport Agency, the Federal State Unitary Enterprise The Administration of Civil Airports (Airdromes), the Government of the Rostov Region and the Managing Company "Airports of the Regions". The total volume of investments is 47 billion rubles, of which private - 19 billion rubles. (own funds  of "Renova", also attracted from Gazprombank).

The first to arrive at the new airport was a flight from Moscow operated by the Rossiya airlines (part of the Aeroflot group) by the A319, symbolically named after the largest city in the south of Russia, Rostov-on-Don. On its board in the capital of the Southern Federal District came the representatives of Federal Air Transport Agency with the head of the agency Alexander Neradko and the heads of the partner companies of the project and journalists from the capital's media. 

Next came the aircraft of the young airline of the south of Russia "Azimut", which performed a symbolic flight from the old Rostov-on-Don airport to the new one. This flight on the Sukhoi SuperJet 100 brought about a hundred honourable guests, among whom were: Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov, Governor of the Rostov Region Vasily Golubev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Renova Group Viktor Vekselberg, honorary citizens of the Rostov Region. Also among the first passengers of "Platov" were representatives of federal services and departments, executive and legislative authorities of the region, law enforcement agencies, regional media. According to the aviation tradition, the first flight to the new airport was met by a water arch from the fire hoses of fire trucks.

After the inspection of the passenger terminal, the guests arrived at a meeting that took place at the new airport building, where the question of the readiness of the air harbour to service regular flights was discussed. According to the head of the Ministry of Transport of Russia Maxim Sokolov, the first regular flight at the airport "Platov" will be serviced on December 1, 2017. «The issue of transferring [to the new airport] specific flights will be decided by the airport operator. In accordance with the decision of the Government of the Russian Federation, the transfer of flights has been authorised since November 27, in accordance with the decisions of today's operational headquarters, it will be implemented from the zero hours on December 1 for a specific NOTAM issued by the airport operator,» - Maxim Sokolov explained.

It should be noted that about 40 airlines will fly to the new airport, as Evgeny Chudnovsky, Director General of the Airport "Airports of the Regions", said: «With all airlines flying from Rostov-on-Don airport, ground services contracts have been signed from the new legal entity. They all are waiting for us NOTAM to close the old airfield and the transition to a new one,» - E. Chudnovsky said. It is planned to organise a round-the-clock transfer between the city of Rostov-on-Don and the new airport "Platov". This was told by Transport Minister Andrei Ivanov. «Appropriate routes will be organised with an interval of 20 minutes, and at night - 30 minutes from the railway station and the railway station" Selmash», - he said. The minister specified that in the near future a tender will be held for the supply of 20 Mercedes Sprinter minibuses. «The delivery time for vehicles is November 27,» - Ivanov added.

The construction of the airport was started in 2014 on behalf of the Government of the Russian Federation. Within the framework of the "from scratch" project, the entire airport infrastructure complex was built at the site - a new airfield of Class B, an artificial runway measuring 3600x45 meters with ICAO category II equipment, taxiway network, apron for 45 aircraft parking places, cargo area apron, engineering networks, control and dispatch centre, starting and main emergency and rescue stations and other facilities of the airport infrastructure.

All objects of the airport infrastructure were built at the expense of the federal budget. The total area of ​​artificial airfields is 921 530 m2, which is 17% of the total area of ​​the airport (the total area of ​​the airport is 535 hectares). The runway is capable of taking all types of modern medium- and long-haul aircraft. For the calculated aircraft type, the B-777-300ER aircraft with a traffic intensity limitation of up to 10 sorties per day was taken.

Passenger terminal has an area of ​​50 thousand square meters. It is equipped with 9 telescopic gangways. The parking area at the station square is designed for 2500 cars. The estimated carrying capacity of the airport is 5 million passengers per year (1,791 passengers per hour). According to the Ministry of Transport, in the long term, the volume of transportation in Platov can grow up to 12 million people a year. Also, the new airport will annually handle about 20 thousand tons of cargo per year.

The architectural concept of the passenger terminal deserves special attention. The roof of the terminal from the air resembles the waves of the Don River, which, spreading on the shore, pass into cascading fountains and a small pond in front of the passenger terminal. The author of the concept "Bridge to Heaven" was the English architectural bureau Twelwe Architects.

The chairman of the board of directors of the Renova Group of Companies Viktor Vekselberg noted that the introduction of the Platov airport complex gives more opportunities for the development of the territory adjacent to the airport. «The most urgent and top-priority tasks will be the creation of a hotel complex, so that crews and passengers can spend the night in normal conditions. These are the issues of creating logistics centres, shopping complexes, complexes for the behaviour of free time, because the airport can be associated with delays, primarily because of climatic conditions. And we would like to create the most comfortable conditions for passengers,» - he said.

Indeed, the new airport is not only an airfield and a passenger terminal. A number of infrastructure facilities are being built here: a VIP terminal, an administrative and technological complex with a crew briefing room, special transport and repair service buildings, state control bodies, a Duty Free warehouse, a production and domestic building, a cynological service building, a logistic warehouse, boiler room, cargo terminal, and more.

Permissions for the commissioning of already constructed airport facilities, including the passenger terminal itself, were issued by Federal Air Transport Agency on October 16, 2017, and on November 4, the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on admitting the airport to international flights and arranging a border checkpoint. This was preceded by the receipt of conclusions on the compliance of new facilities with the requirements of technical regulations and project documentation, including the requirements of energy efficiency.

The new airport will be one of the most modern regional airports in the country. In addition to new procedural technologies, for example, a single zone for screening passengers on international and domestic lines, technological equipment will be used in Platov. So, it is the Don airport that will be the first among the non-capital airlines to inspect passengers' luggage with the help of scanners that have best-in-class threat detection indicators at record throughput.

At the end of the meeting, the high guests took part in planting trees in a memorable square. It is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Rostov region. On the station square in front of the terminal, as a symbol of longevity, prosperity and prosperity of the region, landed plane trees. They are exactly 80 - in terms of the number of years since the founding of the Rostov region.

«This is the beginning of a big journey. We must fill the airport area. Where will we go? There is the whole journey ahead,» - said the head of the region Vasily Golubev, answering questions from journalists.