Reconstruction of the runway cross in Moscow Vnukovo airport is expected this year, and unlikely to start earlier than 15 April.

At this time official information about the pending repair of both runways is limited. The work may take up to two month during which the airport will have to limit its activities. It is, however, possible that certain types of aircraft with admirable field performance and relatively low weight will be allowed to operate out of Vnukovo. This is possible considering location of the runway cross and location of the runways.

Estimations give the length of the main runway – or, better, its part that still be available for takeoff and landing operations in the times of repair – at 2,140 meters. This is sufficient for operations of a decent number of narrowbody jets including Airbus A319 and A320, Boeing 737-500 and Tupolev Tu-204.

Vnukovo director Vasily Alexandrov says that the operations from a stretch of the runway will require high skills from the pilots as they will be required to touch down precisely at the very beginning of the runway. Up to a dozen overruns occur in Vnukovo due to non precise touchdowns, he adds.

Widebody jets such as the Airbus A330 will be re-directed to other Moscow airports, as well as the Tupolev Tu-154 narrowbody trijet. In some cases certain types of aircraft will be allowed to stay with Vnukovo provided they operate with restricted payloads.

Russian aviation authorities are yet to make a decision on the time of Vnukovo runway cross repair, which is expected soon.