#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The Norilsk Combine flight detachment was created for production needs. During the Great Patriotic War, planes exported Norilsk metal and delivered goods of paramount importance to the Arctic. But the city had to solve the issue of passenger traffic.
The route Krasnoyarsk – Norilsk was difficult: six hours of flying without a single landing. After the war, the Combine built three airports on the Yenisey: in Turuhansk, Podkamennaya Tunguska and Yeniseisk.
The regular movement of passenger aircraft from Norilsk began only in 1953. About 18 thousand people were transported a year then.
In 1958, the Aeroflot agency was opened specifically for the air tickets sale in the Norilsk center. Then this address sounded like Stalin prospect, 12, later transformed into Leninsky prospect, 18.
In 1961, a flight from Norilsk to Krasnoyarsk cost 66 rubles, to Moscow – 90, and Norilsk citizens flew to Leningrad for 91 rubles.
In the 1980s, before the holiday season, the longest queues lined up at the air tickets offices, rivaled only by the crowds in front of liquor stores.
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we talked about how garages built into residential buildings appeared in Norilsk.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division archive
