A new airfield for heavy transport aircraft has been put into operation on Bolshevik Island in the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago in the Russian Arctic. It is planned that the new airfield will become a key link in the supply of Arctic expeditions, as well as improve the work of Russia's largest hydrometeorological observatory, the Cape Baranov Ice Base, where the landing strip is located, reports TASS, citing the press service of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute.

Unlike many other Arctic and Antarctic airfields, at the new Bolshevik Island site the runway is not on the glacier, but on frozen ground. Because of this, polar explorers have to work on the sufficient strength of the airfield area and compact it. The polar team has successfully met these challenges, and the snow and soil airfield can now accommodate any class of cargo aircraft.

The most important function of the new airfield will be to support the Severny Polyus drifting expedition, which resumed last year after a multi-year hiatus. The airbase will not only make it possible to deliver all the necessary cargo to the expedition participants but also to rotate scientists, who spend many months on the Severny Polyus ice-resistant platform of the same name. The airfield on Bolshevik Island will be the main logistical link between land and the drifting ice floe.