Baikonur Krayniy International Airport — Baikonur, Kazakhstan

Baikonur Krayniy International Airport serves Baikonur, a city in Kazakhstan that operates under a long-term lease to Russia because of its role hosting the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the world's first and largest operational space launch facility. The facility sits at 317 feet of elevation, where a single runway mainly moves cosmonauts, engineers, and space program personnel rather than ordinary tourists. Since the Soviet era, Baikonur has launched everything from Sputnik to crewed missions bound for the International Space Station, and Krayniy Airport exists largely to support that ongoing space program rather than serve as a general travel hub. Russia continues to lease both the cosmodrome and the surrounding city from Kazakhstan under an arrangement running for decades, giving Baikonur an unusual dual identity as Kazakh territory administered for Russian aerospace operations. Passenger numbers at BXY stay modest given this narrow purpose, and its large-airport classification reflects the facility's strategic importance rather than heavy commercial traffic.