Jelgava (air base)

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Jelgava
IATA: - ICAO: EVEA
Summary
Airport type		civilian
Operator		City authorities
Serves		Yelgava
Elevation AMSL		20 ft (6 m)
Coordinates		56°40′18″N, 023°40′42″E
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	ft	m
	8202	2500	Concrete

Jelgava (also Yelgava) is an air base in Latvia located 3 km northwest of Jelgava. It was probably a forward deployment attack base now it is used by general aviation mostly by parachutists or private aircraft.

[edit] Known History

Air Base Jelgava was part of the first defense line of the Soviet Union. While Air Base Tukums was one of the main Latvian AirForce base for aircraft like the Mig-29 and SU-27, air base Jelgave was a back up base with one runway. Due to air base had to be maintained, for possible backup, it was used for helicopters and some light aircrafts. In the late 80s the runway was extended to allow use by jet aircraft.

The 285 OVEREB (285th Independent Electronic Warfare Helicopter Squadron) was based here in the 1990s flying Mi-8 aircraft.

[edit] Future

It was heard that Ryanair wanted to use the base for services.^{[citation needed]}