Pärnu Airport

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Pärnu Airport
IATA: EPU - ICAO: EEPU
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		Tallinn Airport Ltd.
Serves		Pärnu
Elevation AMSL		46 ft (14 m)
Coordinates		58°25′09″N, 24°28′22″E
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
03/21	8,136	2,480	Concrete

Pärnu Airport (IATA: EPU, ICAO: EEPU) is an airport in Estonia. The airport is situated 4 km (2½ mi) from the city of Pärnu.

In October 1937 Pärnu town council gave an area of 0.28 km² (69 ac) for building of an airport. The first plane took off from the airport in 1939.

During the Cold War, the airfield was operated by the Soviet Air Force. It was an interceptor aircraft base, operated by 366 IAP (366th Interceptor Aviation Regiment) and possibly the 655 IAP (655th Interceptor Aviation Regiment), which flew MiG-23 aircraft from the 1970s until the 1990s ^[1].

In the summer of 1992, the newly started Estonian defence ministry took over the military airport, which had drawn down its operations. On 15 October the same year it was decided to build a civil airport at the site of the old military airport. The old runway was closed on 1 July 1997, and regular flights started to use the runway that had belonged to the Soviet air force.

The small airline Air Livonia flies from Pärnu to Kuressaare, Kihnu and Ruhnu. The airport is often visited by private airplanes from Scandinavia and other European countries. 5035 people travelled via Pärnu Airport in 2004.