# Elista Airport (ESL)

> Elista, RU · IATA: ESL · ICAO: URWI · Medium Airport

## Quick Facts

| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| IATA | `ESL` |
| ICAO | `URWI` |
| City | Elista |
| Country | RU |
| Type | Medium Airport |
| Elevation | 153 m |
| Cargo | ❌ |
| GPS | 46.37390, 44.33090 |

## Description

For more than two years after February 2022 no scheduled aircraft touched down at Elista (IATA ESL, ICAO URWI): the field lay inside the closed southern Russian airspace zone until it reopened on 3 May 2024, the first of that group to return to service. Traffic remains modest — 324 flights and about 29,000 passengers in the first half of 2025 — with Aeroflot serving Moscow-Sheremetyevo and Red Wings flying to Sochi and Yekaterinburg, plus seasonal Antalya. The airport of the Kalmyk capital has no cargo terminal, no freighter operations and no dedicated air-cargo handling, so goods depend on the limited belly capacity of those passenger services. Western sanctions against Russia additionally govern what may lawfully be shipped at all, which matters more for most consignments than any local infrastructure question. Shippers in the steppe region normally truck to Volgograd (VOG, roughly 280 km) or Astrakhan (ASF), while intercontinental air freight routes through Moscow. Customs clearance takes place at those larger stations rather than at Elista.

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*Freight Academy — Airport Profile: [https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/airports/elista-airport-esl](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/airports/elista-airport-esl)*

*Markdown mirror: [https://www.freight-academy.com/api/md/airports/en/elista-airport-esl](https://www.freight-academy.com/api/md/airports/en/elista-airport-esl)*

*LLM-Summary (JSON): https://www.freight-academy.com/api/v1/airports/elista-airport-esl/llm-summary*