| S. Darius and S. Girėnas Airport S. Dariaus ir S. Girėno aerodromas |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| IATA: none – ICAO: EYKS | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Public | ||
| Serves | Kaunas, Lithuania | ||
| Location | Aleksotas | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 246 ft / 75 m | ||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| m | ft | ||
| 09R/27L | 1,130 | 3,707 | Asphalt |
S. Darius and S. Girėnas Airport (S. Dariaus ir S. Girėno aerodromas) (ICAO: EYKS), also known as Aleksotas Airport (Aleksoto aerodromas), is a small airport located in Aleksotas, close to the Europa Avenue, only 3 kilometres away from the Kaunas city centre in Lithuania.
S. Darius and S. Girėnas Airport was an international airport in Kaunas, established by German Army in 1915, after it captured Kaunas Fortress. It is the oldest functioning airport in Lithuania, making it also one of the oldest airports in Europe. During the Interwar period, the Deruluft airlines opened regular connection Königsberg-Kaunas-Smolensk-Moscow in May 1922. Later it was expanded to the route Berlin-Danzig-Königsberg-Kaunas-Smolensk-Moscow. There were flights on the route Warsaw-Kaunas-Riga-Helsinki, also connections with Stockholm, and some more, in the 1930s. Lithuania ordered in England two six-seat planes Percival Q 6 and the first air line of the Lithuanian civil aviation was opened on 5 September with flights from Kaunas to Palanga. 216 regular flights by the route Kaunas-Palanga were made during the years 1938 and 1939, during which 764 passengers, 3,546 kg of luggage, and 3,476 kg of mail parcels were carried.[1]
Aleksotas Airport was treated as one of the most dangerous airports in Europe due to the short landing strip in the 1980s.[2] The airport was named after the Lithuanian pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas, who perished in a crash near the end of an attempted non-stop flight from New York to Lithuania in 1933.
Its historical importance makes it a natural host for the Lithuanian Aviation Museum. Because of the lack of territory for further development, the commercial activities of the airport were moved to the new Kaunas International Airport in 1988. S. Darius and S. Girėnas Airport is still used for tourism purposes and air sports as well.