Vadim Stepanov | aviaspotting.com
SPOTTING REPORT
Salekhard is the town in the northwest Siberia, lying on the Arctic Circle. The town is the administrative center of Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Despite relatively small population of 48,000 people, Salekhard is important economic and political center of the Russian Arctic.
The Salekhard Airport (SLY / USDD) located 7 kilometers north of Salekhard, beyond the Arctic Circle, is a principal transport hub in the polar zone, handling medium-sized aircrafts. With 474,000 passengers in 2024 (ten times higher than town’s population), Salekhard is the second largest airport in the Russian Arctic after Murmansk. The airport is also a designated emergency airfield for commercial airliner cross-polar routes.
The major airline at Salekhard is Yamal Airlines, an airline belonging to the government of Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Yamal Airlines’ fleet of 29 aircrafts composed of A320, Sukhoi SSJ and CRJ-200 planes is partially based at SLY, as well as at Tuymen and Moscow Domodedovo airports. Yamal Airlines is in top-15 of Russian Airlines with about 1.3 mln passengers per year. Several other Russian companies also fly to Salekhard – S7 Airlines, RusLine and Turukhan Airlines.
Planes on the apron
The spotting opportunities at SLY are rather limited due to low traffic and climate. Airplanes parked on the ground can be seen from the terminal (spot 1), and a point at the fork on the road to the airport (spot 2) allows you to shoot aircraft landing or taking off, if conditions permit.
Salekhard Airport map
But the most interesting thing at SLY is the Polar Aviation Museum. The Museum is located 10 minutes’ walk from Salekhard Airport at spot 2 and is an open-air exhibition of Soviet polar aviation aircraft and helicopters.
This is what is presented in this exhibition.
Lisunov Li-2. This passenger aircraft flew for Aeroflot from 1950 to 1973.
Antonov An-26B, ex-Aeroflot.
Yakovlev Yak-40. From 1973 to 1994 the aircraft was in Aeroflot fleet, and then the plane flew for Tuymen Avia Trans till 1998.
This Tu-134A-3 was built in 1978 and flew for Yamal Airlines relatively recently – until 2015.
Mil helicopters – Mi-1, Mi-4A, Mi-6A, Mi-8T.
Enjoy flying, go spotting
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