Koltsovo international airport (affiliated with the Airports of Regions holding) hosted Europe’s largest annual air rally Rallye Aéro France. During two hours seventeen single engine two-seaters and four-seaters, including Mooney M20E, Cessna 182, Piper PA28, Cirrus SR22, and LancairLegacy airplanes landed in Yekaterinburg’s air hub, having delivered about 40 travelers to the Urals capital.
The rally started on June 8 from the French city of Colmar. This year the route lies via Czech Republic, Lithuania, Estonia, Turkey, Greece and Albania, the main leg being Russia.
French pilots are not the only ones choosing Koltsovo airport as one of their key destinations. This May the airport has welcomed the participants of a gyroplane round-the-world cruise while early in June the air hub was visited by a group of pilots traveling round the world by light airplanes via Alaska.
The first Rallye Aéro France took place in 1995. Amateur pilots operating light planes with the wing span not exceeding 11 meters and maximum takeoff weight being below 2 tonnes can participate.
Russia hosts this unique rally for the first time. The participants of the 25th rally have already visited St. Petersburg, Moscow and Kazan. Already tomorrow they are departing from Yekaterinburg to Samara and then down south.
