Katowice-Muchowiec Airport

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Katowice-Muchowiec Airport Lotnisko Katowice-Muchowiec
IATA: N/A - ICAO: EPKM
Summary
Airport type		Sport/Public
Operator		Aeroklub Śląski
Serves		Katowice
Elevation AMSL		909 ft (277 m)
Coordinates		50°14′17.33″N, 19°02′03.05″E
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
05L/23R	3,643	1,110	Concrete (in part destroyed by coal-mining, closed)
05/23	2,526	770	Grass (closed per NOTAM until 2008)
07/25	2,149	655	Grass

Katowice-Muchowiec Airport (Polish: Lotnisko Katowice-Muchowiec, ICAO code: EPKM) is a general aviation (mainly sport use) airport in the Muchowiec neighborhood of Katowice, Poland.

It has one inoperative concrete runway, RWY 05/23 with the dimmensions of 1109 x 30 meters (3640 x 98 feet). There is a displaced threshold length of 221 meters (725 feet) on both RWY 05 and RWY 23, yielding a landing distance of 888 meters (2915 feet). However, coal-mining activity damaged the runway and it is no longer used. The parallel 770-meter grass RWY 05/23 is also closed per NOTAM until the end of 2007. This leaves the 655-meter grass RWY 07/25 as the sole working runway.

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

It was recently decided that building new concrete runway parallel to ul. Lotnicza (Lotnicza Street) with dimmensions 850 x 25 meters 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).