Mihail Kogălniceanu Airport is situated in southeastern

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, in the commune of

Mihail Kogălniceanu Mihail Kogălniceanu (; also known as Mihail Cogâlniceanu, Michel de Kogalnitchan; September 6, 1817 – July 1, 1891) was a Romanian Liberalism, liberal statesman, lawyer, historian and publicist; he became Prime Minister of Romania on Octo ...

, north-northwest of

Constanța Constanța (, , ) is a city in the Dobruja Historical regions of Romania, historical region of Romania. A port city, it is the capital of Constanța County and the country's Cities in Romania, fourth largest city and principal port on the Black ...

. It is the main airport of the

Northern Dobruja Northern Dobruja ( or simply ; , ''Severna Dobrudzha'') is the part of Dobruja within the borders of Romania. It lies between the lower Danube, Danube River and the Black Sea, bordered in the south by Southern Dobruja, which is a part of Bulgaria. ...

region and provides access to

Constanța County Constanța () is a Counties of Romania, county (județ) of Romania on the Bulgaria–Romania border, border with Bulgaria, in the Dobruja region. Its capital city is also named Constanța. Demographics In 2021, it had a population of 655,997 ...

, the

Port of Constanța The Port of Constanța is located in Constanța, Romania, on the western coast of the Black Sea, from the Bosphorus Strait and from the Sulina Branch, through which the Danube river flows into the sea. It covers , of which is land and the re ...

and the Black Sea resorts. The airport is named in honour of

, the third Prime Minister of Romania. The military sector of Mihail Kogălniceanu International Airport is currently home to the 57th Air Base. Since 1999 it has been used by the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

.Sgt. Erica Earl (May 23, 2019) U.S. Soldiers march in Romanian parade
Area Support Group – Black Sea

History

Built in 1955 as a military airbase, Mihail Kogălniceanu Airport opened for civil operations in May 1960. It replaced the old Palas Airport (founded in 1932). A passenger terminal with a capacity of 200 passengers per hour was inaugurated in 1962. In 1967 the terminal expanded to a processing capacity of 300 pax/hour. In 1974 a major expansion increased the processing capacity to 1,000 pax/hour. Use of the airport peaked at 778,766 passengers in 1979, when foreign tourism to the Romanian Riviera was at a high. Mihail Kogălniceanu International Airport handled 127,635 passengers in 2017. That represented a 34.9% increase over the previous year. In 2023, the airport registered a total traffic of 115,107 passengers, an increase by 44% compared to 2022 when 80,007 passengers were registered. The same year, work started on modernizing the airport and improving its infrastructure as part of a series of investments. The project includes work on the

control tower Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled a ...

, the passenger terminal as well as the development of other facilities.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Constanța Airport:

Statistics

21st TSC helps move equipment to Afghanistan 130716-A-HG995-362

Traffic figures

Military usage

The airport is home of the

Romanian Air Force The Romanian Air Force (RoAF) () is the air force branch of the Romanian Armed Forces. It has an air force headquarters, an operational command, five air bases, a logistics base, an air defense brigade, an air defense regiment and an ISR (Intel ...

57th Air Base, which was the only unit operating the

Mikoyan MiG-29 The Mikoyan MiG-29 (; NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) is a twin-engine fighter aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. Developed by the Mikoyan design bureau as an air superiority fighter during the 1970s, the MiG-29, along with the larger Suk ...

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft (early on also ''pursuit aircraft'') are military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air supremacy, air superiority of the battlespace. Domina ...

. The base was disbanded in April 2004, then reestablished in 2018. It has been used by the

US Military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. U.S. federal law names six armed forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the Coast Guard. Since 1949, all of the armed forces, except th ...

since 1999. It is currently home to the 572nd Helicopter Squadron which operates IAR 330Ls. Currently, there are plans are to further expand the base, transforming it into the biggest NATO airbase in Europe.

Ground transportation

Bus

Several city bus lines link the airport to Constanța railway station. There are also a few private bus lines operating to downtown Constanța and to the

Romanian Black Sea resorts The Romanian Black Sea resorts, or the Romanian Riviera, stretch along the Black Sea coast from the Danube Delta at the northern end down to the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the south, along 275 kilometers of coastline. The most important r ...

. There is no shuttle service available.

Taxi

There are always cabs available outside airport terminal. The cost of a ride to Constanța is around US$30 which is considerably higher than the bus rates which can be as low as 3 lei/US$0,43.

Car

The Airport is easily accessible by car and is located in north-western part of Constanța, which can be accessed from the DN 2A/ E60 Constanța-Hârșova or

A4 motorway (Romania) The A4 motorway () is a motorway in Romania that serves as a bypass for the city of Constanța, between Ovidiu and the Port of Constanța, connecting with the A2 motorway (Romania), A2 motorway via an interchange southwest of the city. It is 22&n ...

until

Ovidiu Ovidiu (, historical name: ''Canara'', ) is a town situated a few kilometres north of Constanța in Constanța County, Northern Dobruja, Romania. Ovidiu is quite small, with a population of 13,968 as of 2021, and many wealthy inhabitants of Consta ...

. The airport can also be reached from the A2 highway by exiting towards

Cernavodă Cernavodă () is a town in Constanța County, Northern Dobruja, Romania with a population of 15,088 as of 2021. The town's name is derived from the Bulgarian ''černa voda'' ( in Cyrillic), meaning 'black water'. This name is regarded by some s ...

driving on DN22C towards

Medgidia Medgidia ( or ; historical Turkish names: ''Karasu'' or ''Carasu'', ''Mecidiye'' or ''Megidie'') is a city in Constanța County, Northern Dobruja, south-eastern Romania. History Archaeological findings show that Dobruja was inhabited since the ...

then through county road DJ 222 passing through Cuza Vodă all the way to the commune of Mihail Kogălniceanu where the airport is located. Alternatively from the A2 highway there is another exit towards Medgidia on DJ381 and then continue on DJ222. Car rentals are also available. There is free short- and long-term parking right outside the airport terminal.

Accidents and incidents

* On 7 December 1970, a

BAC One-Eleven The BAC One-Eleven (BAC-111, BAC 1-11) is a retired early jet airliner produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Conceived by Hunting Aircraft as a 30-seat jet, before its merger into BAC in 1960, it was launched as an 80-seat airl ...

operated by

TAROM TAROM (; legally ''Compania Națională de Transporturi Aeriene Române TAROM S.A.'') is the flag carrier and oldest currently operating airline of Romania, based in Otopeni near Bucharest. Its headquarters and its main hub are at Henri Coand� ...

crashed on approach to Mihail Kogălniceanu, away from the runway, killing 19 of the 27 occupants. The accident occurred due poor weather. The aircraft was flying from

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

and had been diverted from

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

. * On 12 June 2017, a

MiG-21 LanceR This is a list of variants and specifications for variants of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21, which differed considerably between models. Variants All information in this section adapted from ''MiG-21'' (2008).Gordon, Yefim. ''Mikoyan MiG-21'' (Fam ...

of the

crashed on approach, 8 km away from Mihail Kogălniceanu Airport. The pilot, though seriously injured, survived and the aircraft was written off.

Notes

References

Charlie Coon, Construction To Begin This Winter On Romania Bases, Stars and Stripes, September 30, 2006

JTF East

External links

Official website

Google Map - Aerial View

Sourcewatch link
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mihail Kogalniceanu International Airport Airports in Romania Romania–United States military relations Buildings and structures in Constanța County Airports established in 1960 1960 establishments in Romania Transport in Constanța