Platov International Airport — Rostov-on-Don, Russia

Built to accommodate crowds for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, ROV opened in December 2017 as a replacement for Rostov-on-Don's aging Soviet-era airport, which sat too close to the growing city to expand further. The new facility takes its name from Matvei Platov, a celebrated Don Cossack ataman and cavalry general who fought against Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 and later founded the city of Novocherkassk nearby. Rostov-on-Don itself sits near the Sea of Azov and has long served as an economic and administrative center for southern Russia, historically nicknamed the gateway to the Caucasus. ROV was designed with substantial room for future growth, featuring a modern terminal and expanded runway capacity intended to handle rising traffic across the region. The airport's opening consolidated flights that had previously operated from two separate, more constrained sites serving the wider metropolitan area.