Katowice-Muchowiec Airport ( pl, Lotnisko Katowice-Muchowiec, ICAO code: EPKM) is a

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

(mainly sport use)

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

in the Muchowiec neighbourhood of

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popu ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. It has one inoperative concrete

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concrete, ...

, RWY 05/23 with the dimensions of . There is a displaced threshold length of on both RWY 05 and RWY 23, yielding a landing distance of . However, coal-mining activity damaged the runway and it is no longer used. The parallel 770-metre grass RWY 05/23 is also closed per

NOTAM A Notice to Airmen/Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM), is a notice filed with an aviation authority to alert aircraft pilots of potential hazards along a flight route or at a location that could affect the flight. NOTAMs are unclassified notices or ...

until the end of 2007. This leaves the 655-metre grass RWY 07/25 as the sole working runway.

History

The airport was built in the 1920s, and was used for civil aviation including scheduled passenger traffic, starting in 1926 with service to

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

, later also to Cracow, Vienna via Brno. Ground damage due to coal-mining activity eliminated the passenger traffic, and now only the sport use remains with infrequent general aviation arrivals and departures. On the other hand, because of the long commute from the city centre to the 30 km-distant

Katowice International Airport Katowice Wojciech Korfanty Airport ( pl, Katowice Airport im. Wojciecha Korfantego) is an international airport, located in Pyrzowice, north of Katowice, Poland. The airport has the 4th-biggest annual passenger flow in Poland. Katowice Airp ...

, it has been proposed to the Katowice government in 2005 that a city airport be built at Katowice-Muchowiec Airport, offloading Katowice International for general aviation as well as some smaller scheduled traffic, serving primarily the business community and

STOL A short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft is a conventional fixed-wing aircraft that has short runway requirements for takeoff and landing. Many STOL-designed aircraft also feature various arrangements for use on airstrips with harsh condition ...

aircraft.

Modernisation proposals

Katowice (321 thousand inhabitants, 4,5 million in nearby GOP conurbation) intended to transform its inner-city airport (current runway length: 1110 metres, width: 30 metres) into a proper City-Airport (there is limited space for the enlargement of the landing strip to approx. 1500 metres) that would serve this densely populated coal basin. However, only smaller aircraft could use it, and it would serve rather domestic and business traffic. It was recently decided that building new concrete runway parallel to ul. Lotnisko (Lotnisko Street) with dimensions 850 x 25 metres is the best course of action. Further modernization would require also building new facilities, including a passenger terminal. It is unclear how the proposed improvements are to be squared with the conditions which forced the cessation of passenger traffic in the first place. As of summer 2007, work on fixing the airport has stalled because of a court fight between its resident sport airclubs (aeroclubs) over airport's real estate (nominally owned by the city, but handed over to the airclubs in perpetual lease).

External links

Aeroklub Polski website

Aeroklub Śląski website
{{authority control Airports in Poland Transport in Katowice Buildings and structures in Katowice 1920s establishments in Poland