Gelendzhik Airport suspends operations again amid flight safety concerns
Why It MattersRepeated overnight restrictions across multiple southern Russian airports show that reopened airfields near the conflict zone are operating under daylight-only, safety-contingent schedules rather than normal timetables.
What happened
Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) announced that Gelendzhik Airport has temporarily suspended operations due to flight safety concerns, with restrictions on aircraft arrivals and departures introduced overnight. A current NOTAM limits the airport to accepting scheduled flights only between 08:30 and 20:00 Moscow time.
Overnight restrictions were also imposed at Sochi Airport, which were lifted by 03:16 Moscow time. On the night of September 14, the airports of Vladikavkaz, Grozny, and Makhachkala were similarly suspended before restrictions were lifted the same morning.
Gelendzhik Airport had only recently resumed operations after a closure of more than three years. In March 2022, following the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, the airports of Anapa, Gelendzhik, Krasnodar, and Rostov-on-Don all suspended operations. On July 9, 2025, Russia's Ministry of Transport announced Gelendzhik Airport would reopen for domestic flights, with operations limited to daylight hours after specialists determined safe flights to Gelendzhik were feasible. The airport received its first flight on July 18, 2025. Separately, Krasnodar Airport resumed operations in September 2025, also with daytime-only flights, with the first passenger flight to Krasnodar after the three-year break departing from Moscow's Sheremetyevo on September 17, 2025.
Industry impact & what to watch
This case sits within a broader run of overnight suspensions at southern Russian airports — Sochi, Vladikavkaz, Grozny, and Makhachkala were all restricted and then reopened within hours during the same period. Gelendzhik's closure differs in that it followed a reopening that was itself only weeks old, after more than three years offline.
Airports reopened under these conditions operate with daylight-only windows and NOTAM-driven restrictions that can be imposed and lifted with little notice, meaning scheduled capacity at fields like Gelendzhik and Krasnodar remains conditional rather than fixed. Carriers and passengers relying on these routes face a timetable that can shrink to a single daytime window without advance planning certainty.
What happens next depends on how quickly Rosaviatsiya lifts the current restriction, as it did within hours at the other four airports this month, and whether Gelendzhik's daylight-only operating window itself changes as a result.
