Mendeleyevo Airport (DEE) Operating normally

Mendeleyevo Airport is located on Kunashir Island, 15.5 km southwest of the urban-type settlement of Yuzhno-Kurilsk, in the area of the village of Mendeleyevo.

The airfield was built by the Japanese when Kunashir Island was still under Japanese administration and has hardly been rebuilt since then.

On 15 October 2006, it was closed due to complete wear of the infrastructure and destruction of the runway. By 7 November, 43 runway slabs had been replaced and another 45 repaired. By 20 November, the runway was ready for operation. The permits for operating Mendeleyevo Airport were obtained on 29 December. On 8 January 2007, the airport resumed flights. The airport was included in the list of facilities funded from the federal and regional budgets in 2008 as part of the Federal Target Programme “Socio-economic Development of the Kuril Islands for 2007–2015”. The airport reconstruction was scheduled to be completed in 2009. On 1 November 2010, using Mendeleyevo Airport, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev became the first Russian leader to visit Kunashir Island on a working visit. In 2012, new lighting equipment was installed at the airfield, allowing it to accept arrivals and departures at night. On 3 February 2016, Aurora’s new Bombardier DHC-8-Q400 made its first flight to Kunashir. On 18 June 2017, the airport will receive its first ever international flight from Japan.