Pančevo Airport


Pančevo Airport is an airport near the city of Pančevo, Serbia near Belgrade. The airport is mostly used for general aviation operations. It has a single grass runway 1,000 metres long and 60 metres wide.
The airport is also used by Utva Aviation Industry, a manufacturer of light sporting and training aircraft also located in Pančevo, for testing its aircraft.

History

On 15 March 1923, aircraft of the Franko-Rumen company started operations from Pančevo airport. A few days later on 25 March, services between Paris and Istanbul via Pančevo commenced, the first international flights to or from Belgrade. On 9 September the same year, the first aircraft took off on a scheduled service from Belgrade to Bucharest. This was also the first commercial night flight in the history of aviation. CFRNA decided that flying at night was the only way for its aircraft operating on the Paris-Belgrade-Bucharest-Istanbul service to beat the famous Orient Express train to Istanbul.
Franco-Roumaine changed its name to CIDNA in 1925, which used Pančevo Airport until May 1927.