Zrenjanin Airport ( Serbian Latin: ''Aerodrom Zrenjanin'',

Cyrillic , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = G ...

: ''Аеродром 3peњaнин'') , also known as Ečka Airport ( sr, Аеродром Ечка / ''Aerodrom Ečka''), is an airport in the Zrenjanin Municipality,

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

, which replaced in 1977 old Zrenjanin Airport built in 1929 in

Bagljaš Bagljaš ( sr, Багљаш) is a part of the city of Zrenjanin. It is named after a Slovakian family named Bagljas which used to have vineyards in that area. The family still has descendants in the village of Aradac. One part of the area was a gra ...

. The airport is registered as a sports and trade airport, and used for pilot training.

Location

Zrenjanin Airport is situated only 7 kilometres southeast from

Zrenjanin Zrenjanin ( sr-Cyrl, Зрењанин, ; hu, Nagybecskerek; ro, Becicherecu Mare; sk, Zreňanin; german: Großbetschkerek) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the Central Banat District in the autonomous pro ...

, and east of the village

Ečka Ečka ( sr-cyr, Ечка, ; hu, Écska) is a village located in the Zrenjanin municipality, in the Central Banat District of Serbia. It is situated in the autonomous province of Vojvodina. Name and history In Serbian, the village is known as ...

on the

–

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

highway. It is 75 metres above sea level and has an area of 300 hectares.

History

The Germans built the airport with concrete runway (1,800 metres long and 50 metres wide, the longest in the world at that time) in 1942 during the occupation of the

Banat Banat (, ; hu, Bánság; sr, Банат, Banat) is a geographical and historical region that straddles Central and Eastern Europe and which is currently divided among three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania (the counties of T ...

region, where Zrenjanin is located. The airport was used by

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-Fliegerabtei ...

to carry military attacks on

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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. After the war, the region and the airport were handed back to the Serbs. The concrete runway was destroyed by JNA in 1948 at the beginning of the

Informbiro The Informbiro period was an era of Yugoslavia's history following the Tito–Stalin split in mid-1948 that lasted until the country's partial rapprochement with the Soviet Union in 1955 with the signing of the Belgrade declaration. After Wor ...

crisis and its remains are still visible.

Total airport reconstruction (in progress)

Phase 1 (mostly complete)

The first phase encompasses the building of the control tower,

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

, terminal, aircraft parking area and other essentials. The Zrenjanin City Council is currently arranging for the required 650,000

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s that is needed to finance the construction and give the Ečka Airport the

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 ...

status. The airport will be able to host 20 aircraft at any given time. On 7 May 2007, Zrenjanin Airport gained the license for passenger and cargo traffic from the Civil Air Traffic Directorate.

Phase 2

The second phase is a 3 million euros reconstruction of the old German concrete runway parallel to the grass runway. The completion of Phase 2 will enable passenger and cargo aircraft to land and take off.

Agreement with Vizium Air

In September 2008, Austrian company Vizium Air (the general representative of

Diamond Aircraft Diamond Aircraft Industries is a Chinese-owned manufacturer of general aviation aircraft and motor gliders, based in Austria. It is the third largest manufacturer of aircraft for the general aviation sector, and has manufacturing facilities i ...

, the largest sports aircraft producer in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

) signed an agreement with the

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

that includes the construction of facilities for sports aircraft plant (opening of two production facilities), a service centre and a flying school in

with reconstruction of concrete runway, which would employ 400 people. The Austrian company has announced recently that it intended to buy another 15 hectares of land close to the

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 ...

and would invest 30 million euros in the development of the aircraft industry in

. However, in early December 2009, Vizium Airbr>announced
that the agreement has been mutually cancelled by the company and the town's administration, since it was "designed in such a way that realization would be impossible".

External links

Page about Zrenjanin airport at the website of the city of Zrenjanin

Sources

*

(Politika, 01.10.2008) *
U rušenju hangara pronađena povelja iz 1929. godine
(Radio-televizija Vojvodine, 30.09.2008) *
Zrenjaninci prave male avione za Evropu
(Blic, 27.08.2008) *
Zrenjanin airport information (PDF)
*
Vojvođani dobijaju prvi aerodrom?
*
10 maja na aerodromu ''Ečka'' kod Zrenjanina održaće se prezentacija Cessna aviona ( Cessna 182">10 maja na aerodromu ''Ečka'' kod Zrenjanina održaće se prezentacija Cessna aviona (Cessna 182
, Cessna 206, Cessna Caravan">Cessna 182
, Cessna 206">Cessna 182">10 maja na aerodromu ''Ečka'' kod Zrenjanina održaće se prezentacija Cessna aviona (Cessna 182
, Cessna 206, Cessna Caravan) sa početkom u 10:00 časova]
"SkyLark" - Ultra-Light Airplane
https://web.archive.org/web/20070927033234/http://www.dovaaircraft.ca/type_certificate.html *] (

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

"DOVA Aircraft" company presentation at Zrenjanin Airport - May 10, 2007) {{authority control Airports in Serbia Buildings and structures in Vojvodina Zrenjanin