Kurumoch International Airport — Samara, Russia

KUF serves Samara, a city on a sweeping bend of the Volga River that spent much of the Soviet era officially closed to foreigners because of its role in rocket and aerospace manufacturing. That industrial legacy persists today through the Progress Rocket Space Centre, historically responsible for building Soyuz rockets and spacecraft, giving Samara an outsized importance in the history of Soviet and Russian spaceflight relative to its size. The airport, named Kurumoch after the nearby settlement rather than the city itself, underwent a substantial terminal renovation ahead of hosting matches during Russia's 2018 World Cup, when the city's modern stadium welcomed international visitors in large numbers. Samara's riverside embankment, one of the longest in Europe, remains a popular gathering spot for residents, and travelers arriving through KUF often find a city balancing its closed, secretive Soviet-era past with a more open, tourism-friendly present.