A 73-million-passenger three-airport system that re-centered east: Sheremetyevo dominant, Vnukovo growing on Turkey, Domodedovo nationalized.
Moscow runs a three-airport system whose center of gravity has decisively shifted: Sheremetyevo carries the flag-carrier world, Vnukovo grows on Turkey and the CIS, and Domodedovo has become the system’s restructuring case.
Sheremetyevo handled 43.1 million passengers in 2025, consolidating its position as Russia’s dominant gateway — Aeroflot’s home base, concentrating the country’s largest volume of international, business and transfer traffic in one complex.
Vnukovo was the system’s only growth story: 16.4 million, +2.5%, lifted by new foreign carriers — Turkish airlines form a significant share of its schedule — on a route map leaning toward Turkey, the CIS and domestic trunk routes.
Domodedovo fell to 13.9 million — roughly half its 2017 peak of 30.6 million — after base carrier S7 reoriented east; in June 2025 the airport was nationalized, becoming state property after 27 years of private ownership.
The national frame: Russian airlines carried 108.6 million passengers in 2025, down about 3% — the first decline since 2022 — with foreign routes outside the CIS the one growing segment (+7.4% in the first seven months).
Intermittent closures remain the operational tax: temporary restrictions during security alerts periodically halt all three airports — a cost absorbed by schedule resilience rather than capacity.
The Moscow air hub is a case study in what an aviation system looks like when its western map is switched off. The answer: it re-centers. Sheremetyevo became a Eurasian hub flying the Chinese and Gulf corridors; Vnukovo monetized proximity to Turkey; Domodedovo paid the bill. Seventy-three million passengers through a sanctioned system is a number Europe’s aviation establishment did not forecast — and it was achieved entirely without a single Western carrier on the schedule.
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