Screening starts at the terminal door; check-in closes 40 minutes before departure.

Everyone entering the terminal goes through a screening point, and the airport warns of possible delays at the entrance, at check-in, at customs and passport control and at pre-flight security. Check-in usually opens 2–3 hours before international flights and closes no later than 40 minutes before departure.

Check-in downstairs; lounge and departure zones upstairs.

Check-in desks, the information desk, the taxi desk, currency exchange and ATMs are on the ground floor. Upstairs are the main waiting area, the business lounge and separate departure zones for international and domestic flights after security. Not every gate has a lift, so check in large prams as baggage.

Plov, Shokoladnitsa, a pub and coffee bars airside for international flights.

After security, international departures has Shokoladnitsa, Plov (Central Asian dishes such as plov and lagman), a Bambu take-away coffee bar near gate 8, the Russo Turisto café and the Pod Savrasov pub. Before security there is a 24-hour Shokoladnitsa on the ground floor and a 24-hour Bambu café upstairs; domestic departures has only the Nebo bar.

Frequent short-notice restrictions; check your flight before leaving for the airport.

Rosaviatsia regularly pauses or limits flights at Zhukovsky during drone alerts. A restrictions tracker counted 11 restrictions totalling about 48 hours in the 30 days to 17 October 2026; the longest, on 13–14 October, lasted 8 h 39 min. Check your flight on the airport's online board and with your airline before you set off.