Bălţi - Leadoveni International Airport

Infobox Airport
name = Bălţi-Leadoveni International Airport
nativename = Aeroportul Internaţional Leadoveni


IATA = BZY
ICAO = LUBL
type = Public
owner =
operator = S.A. Aeroservice
city-served = Bălţi, Moldova
location =
metric-elev = yes
elevation-m = 231
elevation-f = 758
website =
metric-rwy = yes
r1-number = 15/33
r1-length-m = 2,208
r1-length-f = 7,245
r1-surface = Concrete
footnotes =

Bălţi Airport airport codes|BZY|LUBL, also known as Bălţi-Leadoveni International Airport is one of the two airports serving the city of Bălţi, Moldova. It is located 15 km (9 miles) north of the city center (9 km from the city limits, district "Dacia"), in the North of Moldova. It is the second in importance airport of Moldova. A second airport, Bălţi-City, is primarily of regional importance and is located within city of Bălţi.

Geography

The Bălţi Airport is situated in the North-Western part of the former Bălţi County (Judeţ in Romanian), on the territory of the village (commune) Corlăteni (called "Leadoveni" during the Soviet time) in Rîşcani District.

Access

Bălţi Airport can be easily accessed by car, exiting Bălţi in the Northern direction and following the highway E583. In terms of public transportation, there are numerous coaches and minibuses going from Bălţi to the Northern districts of Moldova. They would stop upon request at the highway-airport access junction.

History

The construction of infrastructure for Bălţi Airport started in 1970s-1980s, in accordance with the project of the Central Architectural Bureau. After the official opening in late 1980s, the airport was operated by airplanes from Chişinău by the former Moldavian branch of the Soviet Aeroflot company. At that time, it was called Bălţi-Leadoveni International Airport.

From 1980s, Bălţi Airport became the most important airport in the North of Moldova. After the independence of Moldova in 1991, the airport was used by the successor company of the remaining airplanes of Aeroflot - the Air Moldova state company.

The new infrastructure, according to the former plans, was to be built in Bălţi-Leadoveni two terminals, for passenger and cargo, and one control tower. Before the break-up of the USSR, the airport was connected, through direct flights, to almost 20 destinations, including Moscow, Kiev, Sochi.

Aircraft

Bălţi Airport used to be a base for Tu-134, as it had also received Tu-154 passenger jets.

For cargo, different modifications of Antonov jets have used the runway.

Operator

The state company S.A. "Moldaeroservice", part of the national S.A. "Moldaeroservice" holding, is the operator of Bălţi Airport.

As Moldova was experiencing economic crisis in 1990s, the re-construction and modernization plans of the airport, as well as the whole aviation industry were put on hold. Only in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Chişinău International Airport airport was modernized, with the help from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The Chişinău International Airport is today the only airport in Moldova operated by (traditional) regular passenger and cargo airlines (about 65% of which are exclusively by Air Moldova)

Bălţi Airport is currently used mainly by irregular charter passenger, and more often by cargo flights. Because of the current economic reality in Moldova and state management, Bălţi Airport cannot boast to be a busy airport. There are no regular connections to Bălţi Airport today. In between rare flights, the runway serves for Moldavian rallies and open air concerts (e.g. by mobile operator Orange-Moldova).

Perspectives

The new role for the Bălţi Airport could be a fist hub for low-cost airlines (e.g. EasyJet, Ryanair, SkyEurope, Wizz Air, Virgin) in Moldova and in the whole SW Europe region, since the airport in Chişinău remains under State control of Air Moldova.

One third of all passengers on the daily route Chişinău-Frankfurt am Main come from Bălţi and the Northern districts of Moldova. Passengers from the north of the country are also flying to other destinations, e.g. to Italy (Rome, Milan, Bologna), Spain (Madrid), Portugal (Lisbon), Russia (Moscow), the United Kingdom (London), Turkey (Antalya), and they currently use the airport in Chişinău. A new route to London, proposed by Air Moldova from Chişinău (the only airport where Air Moldova flies from), takes up to 6 hours, with a stop in Paris, whereas the normal flight between such destinations takes 2h30, up to 3 hours. The Chişinău-Frankfurt am Main route was an object of harsh negotiations between Lufthansa and Air Moldova, just as the route Chişinău-Kiev. In both cases, German, respectively Ukrainian civil aviation authorities banned Air Molodva from their territories until Moldova would abide to a fair share of traffic with German (Lufthansa) and Ukrainian (Aerosvit Airlines) airlines [cite web | url=http://azi.md/news?ID=42975 | title=Air Moldova is not allowed to enter Ukrainian airspace | publisher=Moldova Azi | date=2007-01-30] , and as soon as Air Moldova let a German company (Cirrus Airlines) operate flights to Moldova, Air Moldova was allowed to resume its flights into the German sky.

Important development perspectives appear for Bălţi Airport also in the cargo field, which would generate economic growth for the whole Northern region of Moldova, but even possibly for the neighboring regions of Ukraine and Romania. Metro Cash & Carry (one of the largest international retailing companies worldwide) recently opened its branch in Bălţi. The region boasts yearly a 8% GDP growth, and real estate investment projects in Bălţi on the part of Western European businesses are some of the growth factors.

The geographic position of Bălţi Airport is internationally important as well, as the next airports in Romania (Iaşi) and Ukraine (Czernovitz), and especially in Moldova (Chişinău) are competitive and economically viable only because of credit subventions and strong state protectionism, and much less through normal economic factors.

See also

*List of airports in Moldova
*Civil Aviation Administration of Moldova

References

External links

* [http://en.caa.md/ Civil Aviation Administration of Moldova] en ro ru icon
*WAD|LUBL
*GCM|LUBL
*NWS-current|LUBL
*ASN|BZY