Pardubice Airport ( cs, Letiště Pardubice) is both

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

and civilian

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries around the world. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports and they must feature longer r ...

in the city of

Pardubice Pardubice (; german: Pardubitz) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 89,000 inhabitants. It is the capital city of the Pardubice Region and lies on the Elbe River. The historic centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monum ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. Apart from the military purpose, it is used for scheduled services,

charter flight Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flights ...

s to Southern Europe during the summer season and cargo flights. After the construction of a new terminal building,

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 ...

and

ground handling In aviation, aircraft ground handling defines the servicing of an aircraft while it is on the ground and (usually) parked at a Gate (airport), terminal gate of an airport. Overview Many airlines subcontract ground handling to airports, han ...

facilities in 2017, Pardubice Airport opened up to serve more passengers and handle standard commercial aircraft such as

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two u ...

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first member of the fam ...

providing better and faster services. The new terminal building bears the name of

Jan Kašpar Jan Kašpar (20 May 1883 – 2 March 1927) was a Czech aviator, aircraft constructor, designer and engineer. He is considered an aviation pioneer in the Czech lands. Biography Kašpar was born at Pardubice. From his early years, he was an enthus ...

, a Czech aviation pioneer. Airport's 2017 refurbishment and construction costed 256 million CZK and was fully funded by the Pardubice City Council and Pardubice Region through their shared subsidiary company East Bohemian Airport, a.s. that runs the airport.

History

Early years

In 1910

, an engineer and aviation enthusiast, and his cousin Eugen Čihák, bought a Bleriot XI aeroplane and started with flight experiments on the local military exercise ground in Pardubice. On 16 April 1910 Kašpar flew for the first time and as the first person in

Czech lands The Czech lands or the Bohemian lands ( cs, České země ) are the three historical regions of Bohemia, Moravia, and Czech Silesia. Together the three have formed the Czech part of Czechoslovakia since 1918, the Czech Socialist Republic sin ...

. In later years he arranged flight exhibitions over the country, most famously his flight from Pardubice to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

(120 km) on 13 May 1911. The first flying club in the Czech lands was founded in Pardubice on 26 April 1911. The club, named ''Pardubice Aviation society'' (''Aviatické družstvo Pardubice'') had five hangars but during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

its activities stopped. After the war the place held occasional flight exhibitions. Since the end of 1929 the airport was used as a training place for aviation enthusiasts; expanded to 25 hectares, it was one of the largest in the country. Since 1933 the airport was also used for

glider Glider may refer to: Aircraft and transport Aircraft * Glider (aircraft), heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight ** Glider (sailplane), a rigid-winged glider aircraft with an undercarriage, used in the sport of gliding ...

training. Between 1936 and 1937 new modern airport facilities were built. In 1939 the airfield took receipt of 39 airplanes from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, including 21 twin-engined bombers. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

the airport served for training of

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...

pilots, toward the end of the war for combat operations, and was destroyed by bombing.

Development since World War II

Between 1950 and 1995, the airport was used only for the military. A 2,500 m long concrete runway was built and a pilot training centre established. The airport hosted the 4th and 18th Fighter Air

Wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is e ...

s (''4. stíhaci a 18. stíhací letecký pluk'') equipped with S-199,

MiG-15 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (russian: Микоя́н и Гуре́вич МиГ-15; USAF/DoD designation: Type 14; NATO reporting name: Fagot) is a jet fighter aircraft developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich for the Soviet Union. The MiG-15 was one of ...

, C-2, C-5, C-11,

MiG-19 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-19; NATO reporting name: Farmer) is a Soviet second generation, single-seat, twinjet fighter aircraft, the world's first mass-produced supersonic aircraft. It was the ...

PM,

MiG-21 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-21; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nickn ...

F and Mi-1 helicopters, the 47th Reconnaissance Wing (''47. průzkumný letecký pluk'') with

R, Il-28L, Il-14 and later with

Su-22 The Sukhoi Su-17 (''izdeliye'' S-32) is a variable-sweep wing fighter-bomber developed for the Soviet military. Its NATO reporting name is "Fitter". Developed from the Sukhoi Su-7, the Su-17 was the first variable-sweep wing aircraft to enter ...

and since 1986 the 30th Strafer Wing (''30. bitevní letecký pluk'') with

Su-25 The Sukhoi Su-25 ''Grach'' (russian: Грач ('' rook''); NATO reporting name: Frogfoot) is a subsonic, single-seat, twin-engine jet aircraft developed in the Soviet Union by Sukhoi. It was designed to provide close air support for Soviet ...

K. Large support military units were located next to the airport and in the city. During the 1990s the military role of the airport gradually declined. Since 1994 the airport was used as a training base (''34. základna školního letectva'') but in 2003 the

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

reduced the role of the airport to provide maintenance and logistics. In 1993 the company East Bohemian Airport a.s. aiming to open the airport for civil use was formed. Officially, the airport was opened for civil operation on 18 May 1995. Since 1 November 1996 the airport has been authorised for operation under the

Instrument flight rules In aviation, instrument flight rules (IFR) is one of two sets of regulations governing all aspects of civil aviation aircraft operations; the other is visual flight rules (VFR). The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) ''Instrument F ...

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled flights to and from Pardubice:

Statistics

In 2007 the airport handled a peak of 93,659 of passengers (about 85% from Russia) and 888 tonnes of cargo; in 2009, hit by the

financial crisis A financial crisis is any of a broad variety of situations in which some financial assets suddenly lose a large part of their nominal value. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many financial crises were associated with banking panics, and man ...

, 49,032 passengers, 343 tonnes of cargo and 994 movements.

Accidents and incidents

* On 1 September 2017, a

Eurofighter Typhoon The Eurofighter Typhoon is a European multinational twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo ...

of the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

overran the runway on landing at Pardubice. * On August 1, 2018 a Travel Service Boeing 737 overshot the runway upon landing from Heraklion on a wet runway.

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * Journal ''ZPRÁVY Klubu přátel Pardubicka'' (''Club of Pardubice Patriots News''). Articles written by Pavel Sviták and several other authors since the 1980s cover history of aviation in Pardubice. * Pavel Sviták: ''První český letec inženýr Jan Kašpar a začátky českého letectví : příběh našeho prvního letce, jeho předchůdců, spolupracovníků a současníků s přihlédnutím k vývoji letectví ve světě'' (''The first Czech pilot Jan Kašpar and the beginning of Czech aviation''), 2003, East Bohemian Museum in Pardubice, .

External links

Official website
* * {{authority control Airports in the Czech Republic Airports established in 1911

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 surfa ...

Military of Czechoslovakia Military installations of the Czech Republic 1911 establishments in Austria-Hungary International airports in the Czech Republic