According to Kommersant, the first Russian private runway suitable for Boeing 737, Airbus А320 and Tu-154М may start functioning in Yakutia in late 2012. Surgutneftegaz will invest 4 billion rubles in the project since it has signed the respective agreement with the government of Yakutia. 

In accordance with the letter from president of the Republic of Sakha, Egor Borisov, to Vladimir Putin from March 16th, Surgutneftegaz may start the construction of its own flight strip at Talakan deposit in Yakutia in May. According to the letter, Surgutneftegaz intends to improve Talakan heliport’s parameters up to the parameters of category II airport using its own funds, the final agreement is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2011. Surgutneftegaz has already built a heliport with flight strip’s length of 300 meters for servicing Mi-26 and Mi-8 helicopters and now it plans to increase flight strip’s length up to 2.5 km. The construction may take up to 1.5 years and after that the airport would be able to service single-aisle aircraft such as Boeing 737, Airbus А320 and Tu-154. 

Surgutneftegaz has confirmed the fact of signing the agreement with Yakutia’s government, but did not make any comments regarding the details of construction. 

Talakan deposit is one of Russia’s largest oil deposits. UTair will be the base carrier at Talakan deposit (since Surgutneftegaz’s pension fund owns 55,68% of this airline). It has already started transportation using helicopter fleet in Talakan. Airport of Surgut will be the managing company for the airport of Talakan.