Airport Brno - Tuřany
History of airports in Brno
History of Brno airports leads us back to 1923 when the Ministry of Public Works expressed their interest to set up a state owned airport. A cadastre of Černovice was selected as the most appropriate one.
On the 23rd May 1926 the first aircraft Farman-Goliath for 12 passengers landed on this airport. The following day an airplane from Prague, De Havilland, registration L-BAHE, with four passengers on board landed in Brno. This day is considered as the beginning of the airplane transport to Brno.
As early as the following year regular post shipment started on the route Brno-Gliwice-Wrocław-Berlin and Brno-Vienna. From 1927 to 1930 the importance of the airplane transport to the South-Moravian capital increased. Brno had connections with Prague, Bratislava, Košice, Zlín, Piešťany, Uzhgorod, Cluj, Bucharest, Sarajevo and Zagreb. Due to the economical crisis, the international routes were cancelled in 1935 because of political reasons. The importance of the Brno airport, which had always been the second largest airport after Prague, started to decline and got to the third position behind Bratislava. In 1939 the German occupation started and ended the first epoch of the airplane transport in Brno.
During the post-war years the connection to Prague was renewed and later on to other Czechoslovakian cities. The lawn airport in Černovice was no longer suitable for new aircraft technical development. Already before the Second World War the Provincial authority in Brno tried to set up a new airport in Tuřany. Brno, due to its favourable location, was supposed to fulfil an important role in all airplane routes as well as become a back-up airport for Prague and Bratislava. But a construction of the new airport, which was financed by the Civil Aviation Authority Head Office, started only after 1950. In 1967 the new departure hall was constructed and the airport expansion works started in 1972. As of 1st January 1982 the airport was handed under the operation of the Ministry of Defence. In this period the airport was opened to the civil operation only during trade fairs season in Brno. In 1986 an extension of the departure hall and other connected objects was completed. Due to the higher interest in operation of international flights, the airport Brno-Tuřany was given a status of a public international civil airport in 1989.
More info: www.airport-brno.cz
Some important events from the history of the Brno-Tuřany Airport
1946: Decision approved to construct a new airport in Brno in the area of Tuřany.
1954: Operations started but only as a state airport for military operations.
1958: Official start of civil operations on a runway with length of 2000 m.
1965-1970: Largest traffic figures in regular domestic transportation (regarding non-existing quality and fast ground transportation, the Czechoslovak Airlines provided connection to Košice, Sliač, Bratislava, Ostrava, Holešov, Prague, and Carlsbad).
1967: Construction of a new departure hall, system of particular approach beacons installed.
1978: Runway extended to 2,650 m.
1986: Departure hall extended.
1982-1992: Airport operated by the Ministry of Defence.
1991: Termination of military operations.
1992: Ministry of Defence hands out the operation to the Czech Airports Authority (Česká správa letišť) in August: permission given to operate public international transportation; civil operations started after couple of years of inhibition.
1997: In May the first Aviation Day takes place in the modern history of the airport; in 2002 the 6th year of the Aviation Day of the Commander of the Czech Air Force took place.
2000: Regular transportation started, common project between the City of Brno, the Brno Trade Fairs and the Czech Airlines on a route Prague-Brno. Operation was closed on the 30th March 2001.
2002: As of 1st July 2002 the airport is maintained by Letiště Brno a.s. (Airport Brno Ltd) which was established in order to operate and develop the airport Brno-Tuřany; the property of the airport belongs to the Czech state.
2004: As of 1st July 2002 the airport becomes a property of the South-Moravia region, Letiště Brno a.s. remains its operator.
Areál na letišti v Brně
Areál pro bohoslužbu na letišti v Brně-Tuřanech
author: Ateliér Štěpán