Bazar Kurgan, KG 🇰🇬 Closed Airport
KG-0013
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2211 ft
KG-J
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Loading...GPS Code: Not available
Local Code: Not available
Location: 41.000801° N, 72.700699° E
Continent: AS
Type: Closed Airport
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Approximately early to mid-1990s. While an exact date is not publicly documented, the airport ceased operations following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The closure was primarily due to economic reasons. After the collapse of the USSR, the centralized funding from Moscow that sustained a vast network of small regional airports disappeared. The newly independent Kyrgyz Republic faced a severe economic crisis and could not afford to maintain and operate these low-traffic airfields. A sharp decline in demand for local air travel also made the airport financially unsustainable.
The airport is completely defunct and abandoned. Satellite imagery of the location confirms the former runway is still clearly visible as a long, straight, unpaved strip of land. However, there is no remaining aviation infrastructure such as a terminal, control tower, or hangars. The land is being encroached upon by agricultural activity, and the former runway itself appears to be used as an informal dirt road or is simply fallow ground.
During the Soviet era, Bazar Kurgan Airport was an integral part of the local air lines (местные воздушные линии - МВЛ) network operated by Aeroflot within the Kirghiz SSR. Its primary function was to provide essential air connectivity for the town and its surrounding rural, agricultural region. The airport handled small, robust aircraft, most notably the Antonov An-2, for a variety of operations including: short-haul passenger flights to regional hubs like Jalal-Abad and Osh, mail and cargo delivery, medical evacuation flights (sanitary aviation), and extensive agricultural aviation services such as crop dusting and aerial surveying.
There are no known official plans or credible prospects for reopening Bazar Kurgan Airport. The national civil aviation strategy for Kyrgyzstan focuses on modernizing its major international airports (Manas, Osh) and a few key regional airports. Given its close proximity to the larger, operational Jalal-Abad Airport (approximately 35 km away by road), there is no economic or logistical justification for reinstating a separate airfield in Bazar Kurgan. The site is likely to remain in its current state or be fully converted to agricultural or other land use in the future.