Oradea Airport is an international airport located southwest of

Oradea Oradea (, , ; ; ) is a city in Romania, located in the Crișana region. It serves as the administrative county seat, seat of Bihor County and an economic, social, and cultural hub in northwestern Romania. The city lies between rolling hills on ...

in northwestern

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 ...

Bihor County Bihor County (, ) is a county (județ) in western Romania. With a total area of , Bihor is Romania's 6th largest county geographically and the main county in the historical region of Crișana. Its capital city is Oradea (Nagyvárad). Toponymy ...

, near one of the main road and rail border crossings to

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. Its location near the

European route E60 European route E 60 is the second-longest road in the International E-road network and runs , from Brest, France (on the Atlantic coast), to Irkeshtam, Kyrgyzstan (on the border with China). Route * **: Brest () **: Brest - Quimper ...

and the future Transylvania motorway have led to a double digit growth of passenger and cargo traffic for the past two years. Since its renovation, the airport has been competing with the neighboring Debrecen Airport in Hungary.

Development and history

The civilian airport became operational in 1938. In 2009, Bihor County contracted consultancy services regarding the extension of the runway, the construction of a

cargo In transportation, cargo refers to goods transported by land, water or air, while freight refers to its conveyance. In economics, freight refers to goods transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. The term cargo is also used in cas ...

terminal, and the renovation of the passenger terminal. The airport terminal is now renovated to

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

(and

Schengen Area The Schengen Area ( , ) encompasses European countries that have officially abolished border controls at their common borders. As an element within the wider area of freedom, security and justice (AFSJ) policy of the European Union (EU), it ...

) standards, and offers various specific facilities and modern amenities such as car rental, exchange offices, various shops, etc. Regarding the runway (and other connected facilities), the Bihor County Commission completed the final contractual formalities with the EU Commission representatives, as this type of infrastructure work was eligible for European funds. A

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

30 million financing agreement for the EU funds was signed on 7 February 2014.Lucrările la Aeroportul Oradea inaugurate
at aeroportoradea.ro Works on the new runway, two rapid-exit taxiways and other facility buildings began on 20 October 2014. In May 2025, the new cargo terminal opened with 13.000 square meters of facilities. The construction works for the runway modernization were completed on 30 October 2015. In the summer of 2024, the

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

established a public company to subsidize international flights. As of May 2025, HiSky,

LOT Polish Airlines LOT Polish Airlines, legally Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A. (, ''flight''), is the flag carrier of Poland. A founding member of IATA, it is one of the world's oldest airlines. With a fleet of 87 aircraft as of June 2025, LOT is Europe's 16th ...

and

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...

have been approved.

Airlines and destinations

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

Statistics

Other use

Military

Since April 2009, the

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

Centre of Excellence in Oradea is a member of

's Centres of Excellence (COE) network. All aircraft involved in Oradea's NATO Centre of Excellence activities utilize the Oradea International Airport.

Air ambulance

A MEDIVAC

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

is based at Oradea International Airport. It is operated by the Pelican Hospital's Emergency Service. It serves Bihor, Sălaj,

Satu Mare Satu Mare (; ; ; or ) is a city with a population of 102,400 (2011). It is the capital of Satu Mare County, Romania, as well as the centre of the Satu Mare metropolitan area. It lies in the region of Maramureș, broadly part of Transylvania ...

Maramureș ( ; ; ; ) is a geographical, historical and cultural region in northern Romania and western Ukraine. It is situated in the northeastern Carpathians, along parts of the upper Tisza River drainage basin; it covers the Maramureș Depression and the ...

and Arad Counties Emergency Services. The

air ambulance Air medical services are the use of aircraft, including both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to provide various kinds of urgent medical care, especially prehospital, emergency and critical care to patients during aeromedical evacuation an ...

transports persons to Level I

trauma center A trauma center, or trauma centre, is a hospital equipped and staffed to provide care for patients suffering from major traumatic injuries such as falls, motor vehicle collisions, or gunshot wounds. The term "trauma center" may be used incorr ...

s located in

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 ...

Cargo

In May 2025, a new

terminal opened at the airport, and was first serviced by an

MNG Airlines MNG Airlines is a Turkish cargo and passenger charter airline headquartered in Istanbul based at Istanbul Airport. History The airline was established by Mehmet Nazif Günal in 1997 and started operations on 30 November 1997. Transatlantic ser ...

Airbus A321 The Airbus A321 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short to medium range, Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body, commercial passenger Twinjet, twin engine jet airliners; it carries 185 to 236 passengers. It has a stretched fuselage which was ...

to Istanbul Airport . The terminal aims to serve strategic transport routes to

. The following day, the airline repeated the service with an

Airbus A300 The Airbus A300 is Airbus' first production aircraft and the world's first Twinjet, twin-engine, double-aisle Wide-body aircraft, (wide-body) airliner. It was developed by ''Airbus Industrie GIE'', now merged into Airbus SE, and manufactured f ...

Wide-body aircraft. The facility includes 13.000 square meters of space, with security, border and other services.

Accidents and incidents

* On 4 February 1970, an

Antonov 24B The Antonov An-24 (Russian/ Ukrainian: Антонов Ан-24) (NATO reporting name: Coke) is a 44-seat twin turboprop transport/passenger aircraft designed in 1957 in the Soviet Union by the Antonov Design Bureau and manufactured by the Kyiv, ...

operated by TAROM crashed into the mountains near Oradea while inbound from Bucharest Otopeni International. 14 out of the 15 people on board died. * On 27 May 1971, an Ilyushin 14 operated by TAROM was hijacked after departure from Oradea. The hijackers demanded to go to

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

where they surrendered. * On 20 September 1994 an

Antonov An-26 The Antonov An-26 (NATO reporting name: Curl) is a twin-engined turboprop civilian and military transport aircraft, designed and produced in the Soviet Union from 1969 to 1986.Gordon, Yefim. Komissarov, Dmitry & Sergey. "Antonov's Turboprop Twins ...

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 ...

, registration 508 was written off in a takeoff accident at Oradea. During the takeoff roll, the flight engineer (student) retracted the landing gear before the captain's order. * On 16 January 2009, a

Gulfstream G200 The Gulfstream G200, formerly known as the IAI Galaxy, is a twin-engine business jet. It was designed originally by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and was produced by IAI for Gulfstream Aerospace from 1999 through 2011. Design and developmen ...

, operated by Ion Ţiriac Air was damaged after it overran the runway. The aircraft suffered damage to the

nose A nose is a sensory organ and respiratory structure in vertebrates. It consists of a nasal cavity inside the head, and an external nose on the face. The external nose houses the nostrils, or nares, a pair of tubes providing airflow through the ...

and the

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for taxiing, takeoff or landing. For aircraft, it is generally needed for all three of these. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, s ...

was broken. All 12 occupants were reported as having survived and suffered no injuries. The aircraft came to a halt near the fence surrounding the airportG-200 Accident
/ref>

Ground transportation

Oradea Transport Local Oradea Transport Local S.A. () or simply OTL is the municipality-owned public transport company in Oradea. It is one of the successors of the communist-era state-owned transport company, "Intreprinderea Judeţeană de Transport Local" Bihor, or ...

provides a bus service (No. 28) between Oradea International Airport and the city centre of Oradea. The price of a ticket is 3

RON Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald. Ron or RON may also refer to: Arts and media * Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character * Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character *Ron Douglas, the protagonist in '' Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe ...

. The timetable of this route is adjusted to the arrivals and departures of the flights. Cabs/taxis are also available. The price of a ride to the city centre is about 30 RON.

References

External links

Official website

Google Map – Aerial View
* {{authority control Airports in Romania Buildings and structures in Bihor County Airports established in 1936 Oradea