Aeroportul Craiova

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History of the Craiova Airport

On January 27, 1938, Charles the IInd of Romania decreed setting up "an airport in Craiova, which would also serve as a military aerodrome, in case of war...". Starting with that year, the Craiova Airport "assigned to public air passenger and merchandise transport" functioned on the actual location.

At that time, landing and taking off were made on a dirt landing path with dimensions of 1000 x 200 m. Between 1938 and 1956 the passenger services were almost inexistent, lacking in the confort that passengers benefit of nowadays.

Between 1950 and 1952 a concrete landing path was built with dimensions of 2000 x 60 m and there have been made the first endowments with means of approach and landing consisting of 2 NDBs.
On May 6 1957 the first airline was opened, Craiova-Bucharest, with Russian LI-2 planes. In 1959, the building in which the air traffic control tower, the dispatcher for the airport, and housing of AN-2 planes had been used until 1962, when the modern usage of IL-14 type aircraft arrived. This type of aircraft was assigned for Craiova-Bucharest flights until 1972.Also between 1959-1972 the landing path was extended to the dimensions 2500 x 60 m and there has been built a 380 x 14 m runway and a 75 x 110 m embarcation - debarcation platform, both made of concrete.
Between 1972 - 1989, the Craiova - Bucharest route was assigned AN-24 and IL-18 planes; the technical body, waiting room for passengers, emission center and the protocol room of the airport have been built.
The 1989 revolution and the passing market economy in Romania led to a decrease of the number of flights from the TAROM company, which meant ceasing intern regular flights starting with 1994. Starting with 1995, the Craiova Airport has been opened to intern and international traffic, servicing charter flights only.

Airport structure
Positioning and access
Located at a seven km distance from downtown Craiova, in the Craiova - Bucharest highway, the airport practically attend the whole region of Oltenia, being the closest air gate for Dolj, Gorj, Mehedinti, Olt and Valcea counties.

Surface for movements : 2500 x 60 m
Runway : 380 x 14 m
Embarcation - debarcation platform : 75 x 110 m

Airport facilities
The airport is annually authorized by the Civilian Aeronautic Romanian Authority, according to the authorization certificate every year and it can develop the following services:

Putting the aerodrome infrastructure at the disposition of air operator for taking off, landing, development and standing of aircrafts compatible with the physical characteristics of the aerodrome, as well as embarcation/debarcation of passengers and luggage, in intern and international air transport;

Handling activites, limited within:
   -embarcation/debarcation of passengers and luggage;
   -services of attending aircrafts - GPU starting;
   -deicing/antideicing aircrafts on land, type I-II liquid;
   -services of putting down fires of a 4th level;
   -medical assistance services, handling, in/out of town transport, hotel room reservations, contacts with regional tour operators, services for issuing health insurance, etc.

The airport is endowed and authorized to operate during the day as well as during the night.
The airport has a (permanent) customs-house, (permanent) border police and it can ensure international flights.
In present, the Craiova Airport can process a number of ~600 passengers/hour. PerspectivesThe manager of the International Airport Craiova has made several contacts with different partners in Germany, Italy, Israel and Canada, on the purpose of achieving the objectives that we are mostly interested in, from the point of view of following the intern and international regulations in civil air force and to increase the security of the flights and the comfort of the passengers, so:
- repairing the airport movement infrastructure - mainly the landing path and then the runway and the embarkation/debarcation platform.
there has been created a IInd class beaconage (the existent one is unclassified) with electrogenic groups for electric air supply;technical endowments strictly necessary for present international traffic operations - 2 PSI vans, emptying vehicles for domestic rezidual water and toilets, a mobile starting plane group etc;creating and endowing a cargo space, ( a big advantage would be that the airport is completely without obstacles towards east, which gives the possibility of an extension of the landing path from 2500 m to 3500 m or even 4000 m).
Starting with March 29, 2007, flights of Carpatair company on the Craiova - Timisoara link have been officially launched, towards the 15 destinations in Italy, Germany and France.
Once the Craiova - Timisoara link has been launched, the entire developing south-western region of Romania will have at its disposition the most rapid and comfortable mean of transport towards other destinations in Europe.