"Avram Iancu" Cluj International Airport Aeroportul Internațional „Avram Iancu” Cluj |
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Summary | |||||||||||
Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
Owner | Cluj County Council | ||||||||||
Operator | Cluj County Council | ||||||||||
Serves | Cluj-Napoca, Romania | ||||||||||
Focus city for | |||||||||||
Elevation AMSL | 1,036 ft / 315 m | ||||||||||
Coordinates | 46°47′06″N 023°41′10″E / 46.78500°N 23.68611°ECoordinates: 46°47′06″N 023°41′10″E / 46.78500°N 23.68611°E | ||||||||||
Website | airportcluj.ro | ||||||||||
Map | |||||||||||
Location within Romania | |||||||||||
Runways | |||||||||||
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Statistics (2016) | |||||||||||
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Sources: Romanian AIP at EUROCONTROL, newsair.ro
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Passengers | 1,880,171 |
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Aircraft movements | 18,535 |
Freight | 2,065 |
Avram Iancu Cluj International Airport (IATA: CLJ, ICAO: LRCL) is an airport serving the city of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Initially known as Someșeni Airport, it is located 9 km (5.6 mi) east of the city centre, in the Someșeni area, which is now within the Cluj-Napoca city limits. The airport is named in honour of Romanian revolutionary Avram Iancu.
In terms of passengers' traffic, Cluj Airport is the second busiest airport in Romania, after Bucharest Henri Coandă, handling 1.88 million passengers in 2016. Its size and location (on the European route E576 and close to A3 Transylvania Motorway) makes it the most important airport in the historical region of Transylvania.
Cluj Airport was founded on 1 April 1932 by the Romanian Ministry of Industry and Trade. Until the civil airport was built, the first operations used the Someşeni Military Aerodrome that was founded by the Romanian National Service of Air Navigation (Romanian: Serviciul Naţional de Navigaţie Aerianǎ SNNA) in 1928. The SNNA was set up by the Romanian Ministry of War for opening an air transportation line between Cluj and Bucharest. The first aircraft used was the Farman-Goliath aircraft, a twin-engine plane with space for ten passengers built by the Farman Aviation Works.
In 1933, Cluj Airport was declared an International Airport by the Romanian Government. The first international flight, a CSA Czech Airlines Prague-Cluj-Bucharest flight, took place on 11 September 1933. The aircraft used on this route were eight-seat Avia-Fokker aircraft. In the following years, several new routes were opened, such as the Aeroflot Moscow-Cluj-Prague flight, opened on 15 November 1935, which was operated with 14-seat McDonnell Douglas DC-2 twin-engine aircraft, registered as USSR-M25 and USSR-M26. Internal flights were also operated in this period, such as Cluj-Satu-Mare and Cernăuţi-Cluj-Arad using Lockheed Model 10 Electra ten-passenger aircraft and de Havilland Dragon Rapide aircraft. In the late 1930s the airport recorded a steady growth and the employees number rose from 6 in 1934 to 16 in 1939. The passenger terminal was also built in this period, being inaugurated in 1939.