Kurzhino Airfield

Primarily economic reasons following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The centrally planned and heavily subsidized Soviet system that supported a vast network of local air lines (Местные воздушные линии - MVL) collapsed. This led to a combination of factors: skyrocketing fuel prices, the breakup of the state airline Aeroflot into smaller, financially unstable regional companies, the decline of collective farms that used agricultural aviation services, and a sharp drop in passenger demand due to the high cost of tickets. Maintaining and operating hundreds of small, unprofitable rural airfields like Kurzhino became economically unsustainable.

The airfield is completely abandoned and defunct. Satellite imagery of the coordinates shows the faint, overgrown outline of a single grass/dirt runway. The land has reverted to a natural field and is not maintained or used for any purpose. There are no visible signs of any airport infrastructure like buildings, hangars, or markings. The site is unusable for any form of aviation.

Kurzhino Airfield was a small, unpaved airfield typical of the Soviet era, serving as a vital link for the remote community of Kurzhino and the surrounding Krivosheinsky District. As part of the Tomsk Oblast's local aviation network, it primarily handled operations by the versatile Antonov An-2 aircraft. Its functions were critical for the region and included:
- Passenger and mail transport, connecting the village to the district center (Krivosheino) and the regional capital (Tomsk).
- Medical evacuation flights (known as 'sanaviatsiya'), providing emergency healthcare access.
- Agricultural aviation, such as crop dusting and fertilizing for local collective farms ('kolkhoz').
- Aerial surveillance for the 'Avialesookhrana' (Aerial Forest Protection service) to monitor for forest fires in the vast Siberian taiga.

There are no known plans or realistic prospects for reopening Kurzhino Airfield. The economic model that supported its existence is gone, and there is insufficient local demand to justify the significant investment required to restore, certify, and operate the airfield. While there are broader discussions in Russia about reviving regional aviation, efforts are focused on a limited number of more strategic hubs, not on rebuilding the entire dense Soviet-era network of small local strips.