POLTAVA AIRPORT - IS THERE ONE?

Poltava airport, one of the oldest airports of Ukraine, is a one-lane (single landing strip/single runway) airport located 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) away from the city of Poltava, Ukraine. Built in 1924, Poltava International airport was once able to process 200 passengers per hour.

It took 2 years to build a new terminal, which was opened in 1974. In its best times from 40 to 60 planes used to land here. Back then it employed around 900 people. Now it only employs 44.

Poltava airport takes 214 hectares of space and can accommodate planes as heavy as 64 tons, which by today's measures is not enough. For the sake of comparison, an empty Boeing-747 plane weights more than 160 tons. As a result, only small private jets and agricultural air crafts can land there.

Poltava airport had been accepting regular flights until the middle of the 90s.

Rumors have it that Poltava airport might be used as Kharkov's backup/reserve airport for Euro-2012 soccer tournament that Ukraine co-hosts with Poland, which is very unlikely considering the proximity of this event and complete absence of investment to modernize its facilities.

If one of these days you drive to Poltava airport you will not see a parking lot full of cars, passengers waiting to take their flights, taxi drivers trying to rip them off. All these things are common for today's airports. Instead, Poltava airport will remind you a scene from Stephan King's "The Langoliers" movie.

Since Poltava airport is almost never used, its huge parking lot is often used by people to polish off their car driving skills.

So, is there an airport in Poltava, Ukraine? There surely is, but you cannot fly here unless you can hire a private jet. Flights Kiev to Poltava? There are no regular flights like that. Looking for an international airport in Ukraine near Poltava? Borispol airport and Kharkov International airports are the nearest ones.