Constanta Airport

Aeroportul Internațional Constanța Mihail Kogălniceanu ; Baza 86 Aeriana annex
Characteristics
ICAO code	LRCK
IATA code	CND
Coordinates	44 ° 21 '44 " N , 28 ° 29' 18" E Coordinates: 44 ° 21 '44 " N , 28 ° 29' 18" E
Height above MSL	108 m (354 ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	about 25 km north-west of Constanța
Street	E 60
Local transport	TRANSEVREN (as of 2016)
Basic data
opening	1962
operator	SN Aeroportul Internațional Mihail Kogălniceanu - Constanța - SA
Start-and runway
18/36	3500 m × 45 m concrete

The Constanta Airport ( IATA code : CND , ICAO code : LRCK ) is a Romanian airport and is located in the village of Mihail Kogalniceanu , about 25 km from the city of Constanta in Romania away.

In addition to civil use, it serves the Romanian air forces as a military airfield . They refer to it as Baza 86 Aeriana annex . Other NATO allies also used the airport.

history

Today's airport was built between 1952 and 1962. Previously there was an airfield at a coastal location north of Mamaia-Sat in the 1930s and 1940s . The Constanța-Mamaia airfield also served the Romanian Air Force at that time . During the German-Soviet war , especially at the beginning of the summer of 1941 and again in 1944 when the Wehrmacht withdrew , units of the Air Force were temporarily stationed here.

Forward Operating Site Mihail Kogalniceanu (FOS MK)

Since 1999, the military area of Constanta Airport, then designated by the Romanian Air Force as the 57th Air Base, Baza 57 Aeriană , has been used by the USA as a military base. After the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29s stationed there were decommissioned, the 57th air base was closed in August 2004. Since then, the military area of the airport has been administratively subordinate to the 86th air base in Borcea as an "annex".

On December 6, 2005, the use of the airport as an American military base was contractually stipulated for at least 10 years. In 2014, FOS MK, named after the Romanian national hero Mihail Kogălniceanu , took over the tasks of the Kyrgyz US base at Manas Airport when American troops withdrew from Afghanistan.

According to a report presented on June 8, 2007 by the Council of Europe investigator into the CIA affair, Dick Marty , there is evidence that secret torture prisons were located at the military base and that high-ranking Romanian politicians were aware of it. The following persons are named in the report who authorized the torture prisons or at least knew about them and are responsible for: the former President of Romania Ion Iliescu , who has meanwhile also admitted this, the former President of Romania Traian Băsescu , the former adviser to the President for national security Ioan Talpeş , the former Romanian Defense Minister Ioan Mircea Paşcu and the former head of the directorate for the military intelligence service Sergiu Tudor Medar .

In autumn 2019 it became known that the current annex of base 86 is to be expanded again to become a fully equipped base 57. Over a period of 20 years and a budget of almost 3 billion euros, the plan is to completely modernize the technical facilities and build a barracks area for eight to ten thousand soldiers.

Military use

The Romanian Baza 86 Aeriana Annex (as of 2018) has two flying squadrons

Escadrila 861 Aviatie Lupta , fighter squadron, equipped with MiG-21

Escadrila 862 Elicoptere , helicopter squadron , equipped with IAR-330L

In addition, the airfield is still regularly used for temporary relocations of smaller USAF contingents by units stationed in the Continental United States as an advanced base. The main operational bases of these contingents are the large US air bases in Western Europe such as the Spangdahlem Air Base . Besides the USAF also uses United States Army set up a transit hub towards the Middle East and in the context of the Southern Air Policing of NATO and fighter jets from other allies are here temporarily stationed.

Civil use

The airlines Blue Air , Turkish Airlines and Wizz Air offer connections from Constanta Airport to Athens , Istanbul-Ataturk , Larnaka , London and Milan (as of 2016).

Web links

Commons : Constanța Airport - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Commons : Constanța Air Base - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Airport website

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b LRCK - CONSTANŢA. (PDF) In: AIP Romania. ROMATSA, June 23, 2016, p. AD 2.8 , archived from the original on September 15, 2016 ; accessed on September 8, 2016 .
↑ Timetable to and from Constanța , accessed on September 7, 2016.
↑ US transit hub in Romania fully operational
↑ Former Romania president admits Allowing CIA site . In: ALJAZEERA . Retrieved April 29, 2015.
^ Secret detentions and illegal transfers of detainees involving the Council of Europe member states: second report (PDF; 813 kB) June 7, 2007, Dick Marty
↑ Igor Bozinovski: Romania Invests in reconstruction of Black Sea airbase. janes.com, October 8, 2019, accessed October 10, 2019 .
↑ Information on the airport website , accessed on September 7, 2016 (Romanian; English).

[AIP-1] LRCK - CONSTANŢA. (PDF) In: AIP Romania. ROMATSA, June 23, 2016, p. AD 2.8 , archived from the original on September 15, 2016 ; accessed on September 8, 2016 .

[2] Timetable to and from Constanța , accessed on September 7, 2016.

[3] US transit hub in Romania fully operational

[4] Former Romania president admits Allowing CIA site . In: ALJAZEERA . Retrieved April 29, 2015.

[5] Secret detentions and illegal transfers of detainees involving the Council of Europe member states: second report (PDF; 813 kB) June 7, 2007, Dick Marty

[6] Igor Bozinovski: Romania Invests in reconstruction of Black Sea airbase. janes.com, October 8, 2019, accessed October 10, 2019 .

[7] Information on the airport website , accessed on September 7, 2016 (Romanian; English).