Geçitkale Air Base or Lefkoniko Airport is a

military airfield An air base (sometimes referred to as a military air base, military airfield, military airport, air station, naval air station, air force station, or air force base) is an aerodrome used as a military base by a military force for the operation ...

of the

Turkish Air Force The Turkish Air Force ( tr, ) is the aerial warfare service branch of the Turkish Armed Forces. The Turkish Air Force can trace its origins back to June 1911 when it was founded by the Ottoman Empire, however, the air force as it is known t ...

near

Lefkoniko Lefkoniko ( el, Λευκόνοικο; tr, Lefkonuk or ) is a town in the Mesaoria Plain under the ''de facto'' control of Northern Cyprus, claimed by Cyprus. Lefkoniko is the birthplace of Cypriot national poet Vasilis Michaelides and is known f ...

( tr, Geçitkale, links=no) in

Northern Cyprus Northern Cyprus ( tr, Kuzey Kıbrıs), officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC; tr, Kuzey Kıbrıs Türk Cumhuriyeti, ''KKTC''), is a ''de facto'' state that comprises the northeastern portion of the Geography of Cyprus, isl ...

. Construction was completed around 1990. During the renovation of the

Ercan International Airport Ercan International Airport ( tr, Ercan Uluslararası Havalimanı gr, Αεροδρόμιο Τύμπου) is the primary civilian airport of the unrecognised de facto state of Northern Cyprus. It is located about east of Nicosia, near the vil ...

between September 2002 and May 2004, it served as Northern Cyprus' primary civilian airport. Geçitkale's unofficial ICAO code is LCGK. In the summer of 1998, amid rising tensions between Greece and Turkey, Turkey briefly stationed six

F-16 The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it ...

s at Geçitkale, in response to the former's positioning of four F-16s and two

Lockheed C-130 Hercules The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally design ...

Paphos Paphos ( el, Πάφος ; tr, Baf) is a coastal city in southwest Cyprus and the capital of Paphos District. In classical antiquity, two locations were called Paphos: Old Paphos, today known as Kouklia, and New Paphos. The current city of Pap ...

. Combat aircraft last visited the airport in November 2000. Gecit Kale Airbase was bought by Turkish Cypriot Businessman

Asil Nadir Asil Nadir (born 1 May 1941) is a British Turkish Cypriot businessman, who was chief executive of Polly Peck, which he took over as a small textile company, growing it during the 1980s to become one of the United Kingdom's top 100 FTSE-listed c ...

and will be transformed into a new airport for VIP and Charter Aircraft.

Aerodrome characteristics

Geçitkale's only runway, 9/27, measures in length and wide. In addition, there is a long stopway on either end. The airport is equipped with a

VOR/DME In radio navigation, a VOR/DME is a radio beacon that combines a VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) with a distance-measuring equipment (DME). The VOR allows the receiver to measure its bearing to or from the beacon, while the DME provides the slan ...

and an NDB station.

Base for unmanned aerial vehicles

Geçitkale Air Base was assigned by a decision of the government of

to the

Cyprus Turkish Peace Force Command The Cyprus Turkish Peace Force Command ( tr, Kıbrıs Türk Barış Kuvvetleri Komutanlığı) is the Turkish garrison in Cyprus. In 1974 Turkish troops invaded Cyprus following a Greek Cypriot coup d'état (organized and supported by the Gr ...

for use by

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...

(UAV) operations. Firstly, three-truck load of ground control unit was installed at the air base. In the morning hours of 16 December 2019, a military UAV of type

Bayraktar TB2 The Bayraktar TB2 is a medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations. It is manufactured by the Turkish company Baykar Makina Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş ...

landed at the air base coming from Turkey. The UAVs are intended to provide protection to the Turkish vessels operating in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea for

oil and gas exploration Hydrocarbon exploration (or oil and gas exploration) is the search by petroleum geologists and geophysicists for deposits of hydrocarbons, particularly petroleum and natural gas, in the Earth using petroleum geology. Exploration methods Vis ...

and

deepwater drilling Deepwater drilling, or deep well drilling, is the process of creating holes in the Earth's crust using a drilling rig for oil extraction under the deep sea. There are approximately 3400 deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico with depths greater th ...

for petroleum and natural gas.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gecitkale Air Base Airports in Cyprus Airports in Northern Cyprus Turkish Air Force bases