Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise is a Russian company, based in St. Petersburg, that operates an airline (Pulkovo Airlines) and the Pulkovo Airport.

Il-86 of Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise,
at St. Petersburg Airport

larger version

The history of Pulkovo, named after the area where it is located along with the village of Pulkovo and famous Pulkovo Observatory (founded in 1839) , began 24 June 1932 with the landing of two aircraft from Moscow at the newly-constructed Shosseynaya Airport south of Leningrad.

Air travel expanded rapidly, and in 1939 Shosseynaya Airport operated 29 routes, carrying 6,305 passengers, 708 tons of cargo, and over 333 tons of mail.

The airport became known as "Pulkovo" in the late 1950s. The airport complex consists of two separate terminals which are so far away from each other than can they can be classified as separate airports.

Pulkovo Airlines used Aeroflot livery until ordered to change it in 1997 so to avoid confusion.

Pulkovo Airlines joined the IATA in June 2000. It uses the designator code FV.

As of 2003, Pulkovo flies to 34 destinations in 23 countries, and 12 cities within the CIS. It employs about 7,000 workers. In the first half of 2003, it carried 911,563 passengers, of 515,720 were domestic and 395,843 international and CIS flights. It also carried 3,753.6 tons of cargo, of which 3,138.5 was domestic and 615.1 international and CIS (this last was an increase of 34% over the same period in 2002).

Pulkovo operates both Ilyushin and Tupolev aircraft. It is scheduled to merge with Rossiya airline some time in 2004 or 2005.

External link

• Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise homepage (http://eng.pulkovo.ru/)

• Pulkovo Observatory (http://www.gao.spb.ru/)

• St. Petersburg airports and air travel (http://www.photofora.com/eugene/transport/Byair.htm)