Arłamów Airport ( pl, Lotnisko Krajna) is a former

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

Arłamów Arłamów is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Ustrzyki Dolne, within Bieszczady County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south-eastern Poland, near the border with Ukraine. It lies approximately north of Ustrzyki Dolne and sou ...

, in the extreme southeast of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

(near the

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

), in

gmina Bircza __NOTOC__ Gmina Bircza is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Przemyśl County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south-eastern Poland. Its seat is the village of Bircza, which lies approximately south-west of Przemyśl and south-east of the r ...

. The site of the airport is often referred to as Łodzinka Górna,

Krajna Krajna is a forested historical region in Poland, situated in the border area between the Greater Poland, Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Pomeranian Voivodeships. The region consists of parts of Złotów, Piła, Sępólno, Nakło, Bydgoszcz and Czł ...

, Trójca or Łomna (after nearby villages).

History

The airport was built in the late 1970s in the vicinity of a secret, luxurious, recreational complex called

. This exclusive, highly protected complex was situated in the midst of a heavily forested area that was accessible only with difficulty. Since it was highly popular among the chief representatives of the Polish

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

government easy access to the facilities was badly needed, from which the concept of building a nearby airfield emerged. Finding a suitable place for the airport was not an easy task, since the surrounding terrain was hilly and densely forested. Finally, the engineers found a plateau on the grounds of the war-torn village of

, 10 km NW of Arłamów. A 1193 m long and 35 m wide

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

bitumen Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

runway was built, thus enabling the party and government officials to land safely in

propeller aircraft A powered aircraft is an aircraft that uses onboard propulsion with mechanical power generated by an aircraft engine of some kind. Aircraft propulsion nearly always uses either a type of propeller, or a form of jet propulsion. Other potential ...

and small jets. Since the Arłamów complex also hosted special international guests arriving in big jets, they were instead flown to Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport and then driven to Arłamów. Beside the runway, an

apron An apron is a garment that is worn over other clothing to cover the front of the body. The word comes from old French ''napron'' meaning a small piece of cloth, however over time "a napron" became "an apron", through a linguistics process cal ...

was built, but no terminal was needed—the arriving officials were immediately picked up by

limousine A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment. A very long wheelbase luxury sedan (with more than four doors) driven by a prof ...

s and driven to the hotel. The runway's direction is 16/34 at an elevation of 441 metres. Since the collapse of the

Iron Curtain The Iron Curtain was the political boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its s ...

, Arłamów and the airport were both dissolved. In recent years the complex has re-opened as a

tourist attraction A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural b ...

, but the use of the airport has not been revived. Arłamów Airport is still there and in fairly good condition, but it is not maintained nor supervised. It is occasionally used for sport aviation, and chartered tourist flights, but

landing Landing is the last part of a flight, where a flying animal, aircraft, or spacecraft returns to the ground. When the flying object returns to water, the process is called alighting, although it is commonly called "landing", "touchdown" or ...

s are performed at one's own risk. More often, the runway is occupied by car-borne speed drivers.

External links

Official site of Hotel Arłamów

Google Satellite Imagery

Proposal for the restoration of the airport
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arlamow Airport Airports in Poland Defunct airports in Poland Przemyśl County Buildings and structures in Podkarpackie Voivodeship ms:Lapangan Terbang Bircza