The flight followed the route Krasnoyarsk – Norilsk – Moscow. Norilsk state agency Aeroflot sold 152 tickets to the capital for the first flight. Levandovsky, the deputy head of the Krasnoyarsk civil aviation administration, flew on the same plane. He said that the Tu-154 took 170 passengers on board, almost twice as many as the Il-18. It takes not two and a half hours, but only one and a half to the aircraft to cover the distance from Krasnoyarsk to Norilsk.
By 1984, Tu-154 aircraft had completely replaced the old Il-18.
In the same spring, the powerful IL-76 cargo airliner made its first landing in Norilsk. It delivered 30 tons of cargo for the trade office.
For other materials of our photo project see the History spot section.
Text: Svetlana Samokhina, Photo: Nornickel Polar Branch archive
