Moscow, the capital of the Russian Federation, is a huge modern metropolis located on the territory of the East European Plain, almost in its very center, on the river of the same name. The population of the city, according to the latest census, is about twelve and a half million people.
The total number of people daily visiting the capital, including residents of the Moscow agglomeration from the Moscow Region, sometimes exceeds seventeen million on the busiest working days. Traffic flows of various directions intersect here, including numerous airways.
DME - which airport does it come to mind?
Three modern air hubs serve the capital's air corridor, and this is not counting dozens of regional airports, as well as private landing strips. SVO, VKO, DME - the airport always has its own international code. And it is he who is indicated on tickets, boarding passes, baggage tags and any other flight documentation. As a rule, this data is sufficient to accurately determine the necessary flight information. However, the vast majority of air travelers when receiving a itinerary receipt or issuing an electronic ticket raises a reasonable question: DME - which airport of the capital region has this name?
A bit of history
Domodedovo Airport, also known as DME Moscow Airport, is one of the oldest air hubs in the capital region. The design and construction of this air port began in 1956. Seven years later, the first postal cargo flight started from the runway of the new airfield, and a year later the Tupolev brand aircraft with passengers on board took off.
Domodedovo airport". Current state of affairs
Today, Domodedovo Airport (DME) is one of the largest in Russia. In 2013, he passed through about twenty-eight million passengers. Two independent runways are constantly in intensive operation, taking dozens of aircraft from all over the world every day.
They are located in parallel, two kilometers from each other, allow you to take off and land from each strip simultaneously and independently, independently of each other. Each runway is certified by the international aviation organization ICAO in the category CAT IIIA. After the reconstruction of the first strip, which was made two and a half years ago, the airport was able to receive and service super-heavy transcontinental airliners such as the Airbus A380. In the central part of Russia, the only place where this type of aircraft can land is Domodedovo (DME). Which airport of our vast country can still boast of?
Classification and Encoding
Each organization uses its own type of encoding of airports, navigation fixation points (for example, VOR beacons) and other ground aviation facilities. DME is the IATA code for Domodedovo Airport. According to ICAO, it is already UUDD.
According to the European classification, codes have a three-letter designation, according to the American - a four-letter designation. Sometimes in the designation between the letters there are numbers (especially when designating VOR-beacons or small airports of local importance and private runways). You can compare these codes only for the territory of the United States of America, where the first letter "K" indicates that it is an encoding of objects in the USA according to ICAO, and the next three letters completely repeat the code according to IATA. For example, John F. Kennedy International Airport in the city of New York, USA, according to the American classification, has the letter code KJFK, while according to the European one it has JFK. In the rest of the world, the encodings do not correspond with each other. Nevertheless, the question remains open. Moscow, DME - which airport, and most importantly, why does it have such an unusual designation?
ICAO or IATA - that is the question
Understanding the situation is easy if you look at professional sources of information on aviation. There are two international flight and aviation organizations: IATA (International Air Transport Association), or the International Air Transport Association ; and ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization), or International Civil Aviation Organization. Currently, they all have their headquarters in Montreal (Canada).
Before the start of World War II, IATA was based in The Hague (Netherlands). It was a tacit regulatory and oversight body in providing air traffic in Europe, while ICAO mainly controlled air traffic on the North American continent. And although the management and development of airways was and still is a priority in the work of these two organizations, their role in the daily life of aviation is not limited solely to these responsibilities. Another, no less important goal is to ensure safe and regular cargo and passenger air transportation, increase the profitability of destinations, any help and assistance in ensuring flights.
IATA in Russia
Here again doubts may arise. Your e-ticket may include the following: Moscow, DME. Which airport is it necessary in this case?
Domodedovo (DME) is an airport in the Moscow region, and it is considered to be the air gate of the capital. However, geographically, the airport is located in the Moscow region, on the border of the Ramensky district and the Domodedovo urban district, forty-five kilometers from the historical center of Moscow in a southerly direction and twenty-two kilometers from the city line of the capital - MKAD. The DME code itself is an abbreviation for the name of the airport Domodedovo. The remaining air gates of the Moscow region have a similar derivative basis: Sheremetyevo, aka Sheremetyevo, aka SVO. Or, for example, Vnukovo, aka Vnukovo, aka VKO.
The bulk of the airports in the post-Soviet space can be decrypted using European IATA codes. Although there are exceptions. For example, the encoding of the airport of the capital of friendly Kazakhstan, the city of Astana, bears the abbreviation TSE, which is in no way associated with the modern name of the city. However, knowledgeable people remember what name this city had in Soviet times: Tselinograd, Tselinograd. Hence the corresponding code.
ICAO in the post-Soviet space
And how is the designation assigned in the ICAO system? There, too, everything is structured and laid out on shelves. The first letter of the code indicates the country, the second - the region, and the last two determine the code of a specific airport. The USSR was once assigned the letter U. After the collapse of the union, the European post-Soviet countries received the European letter-code of the identifier of region E (for example, the Baltic countries), but the bulk of the modern independent states located, as a rule, in Asia, retained the original codes for ICAO (Tajikistan, Georgia, Armenia, etc. .) "Domodedovo" on this principle received the abbreviation UUDD. Other airports, such as Sheremetyevo Airport, are UUEE.
Codes and Flights
What are these codes for? Is it really impossible to simply indicate the place of departure, place of arrival, start the engines and fly with peace of mind, where is it required? However, not everything is as simple as it seems at first glance. Every day, several thousand aircraft can simultaneously be in the air. Not so much, you say, and you will be absolutely right. However, in the air, as well as on the ground, there are specially marked zones - airways.
Any board, cargo or civilian, flies at speeds several times higher than the speed of the car. This is especially true for turbojet airliners. Unlike a car, an airplane cannot be stopped in the air. Each maneuver must be predicted in advance. Even modern planes begin to land at ninety-one hundred kilometers from the destination airport.
A strict procedure, the implementation of all procedures according to checklists, as well as navigation on special flight plans (fly plans) - these are the main points of control of huge aircraft. Any fly plan is a paved path to the destination at a predetermined flight altitude (cruising level), taking into account the liner’s climb and its reduction in preparation for the final approach to the landing glide path.
The plane’s path is its projection relative to the ground — movement from one control point to another along the minimum distance between them, that is, in a straight line. And the most convenient way to describe a point is its unique code in one of the classification systems, that is, IATA or ICAO.
Instead of a conclusion
DME .... Which airport of the Moscow region has this encoding? Now you can safely and competently answer - “Domodedovo”. And not just answer, but also explain the etymology of such a reduction, flashing his knowledge in the company of friends or among colleagues.