Major transformation at Baneasa Airport: new “City Airport” concept and flight restrictions

More than a century after it was built, Baneasa Airport will undergo radical transformations, to be transformed into a city airport, where night flights will be prohibited and the runways will be extended.

Baneasa Airport will be transformed. Photo iphoto

“All over Europe, airports located in the city have a special regime, which rexpect certain restrictions specific to metropolises. Băneasa is already an airport that is now no longer outside the city, but in the middle of it. After all, the airport must serve the city, the community of city dwellers, to whom it must be useful. If we are to judge without bias, the airport is not in the city, but the city developed in the area, after the airport. In 1912, when the Băneasa piloting school was established, the area was a field (on which Aurel Vlaicu did flight demonstrations in 1910).

The reality is now a modern, dynamic one where the city has become a metropolis and the airport is in the middle of the city. The intention of the current management of the company Aeroporturi Bucharest is to listen to the rational voice of the community of Bucharest and Ilfov and to have a new airport concept, a modern, dynamic concept, a City Airport adapted to the years in which we live and the reality of the metropolis, coming to meet the community of Bucharest, which it serves”declared for “Adevărul” Teodor Postelnicu, CNAB spokesman.

Flights, prohibited between 10.00 p.m. and 6.00 a.m

He explained that, currently, landing fees, baggage and passenger services are doubled at Baneasa Airport between 22:00 and 06:00 and that an A320 Neo aircraft operates only one flight during this period. “They are approximately 50% quieter than the old generation A320 aircraft. Between 22:00 and 06:00, school flights, technical flights, engine tests, the use of jet reversers (except for safety reasons) are not allowed.” explained Postelnicu, adding that from 2026 this single night flight will also be banned.

For the first time in the last 15 years, Baneasa Airport also has a development strategy, recently approved, he said, specifying that it was alreadythe procedure of the feasibility study for the construction of a new terminal at Baneasa has been started, also with the aim of reducing traffic congestion and being able to accommodate as many passengers as possible during the day”.

The Strategic Program envisages tripling the processing capacity

The strategic program for the development of the airport infrastructure at “Bucharest Băneasa – Aurel Vlaicu International Airport” 2025 – 2035 provides for the tripling of the current processing capacity:

– increasing the operational capacity of the airport by reorganizing the current passenger terminal (ensuring a processing capacity of at least 800 passengers/peak hour, compared to 600 passengers/hour);

– the development of a new passenger processing terminal, with the necessary facilities, with a capacity of at least 800 more passengers/peak hour (in addition to the capacity of the current terminal) and the development of the adjacent land, in the proximity of the existing terminal to the east of it, which will have access to the platform; to the track, platforms and taxiway system;

– modernization of the AIBB-AV movement surface.

Currently, the existing terminal allows processing a total of 600 passengers/peak hour according to IATA standards, distributed as follows: 200 passengers on the departure stream (160 non-Schengen, 40 Schengen) and 400 passengers on the arrival stream (200 Schengen, 200 non-Schengen).

By reorganizing the existing terminal, processing capacities are balanced between the flows of departures and arrivals, in order to ensure a high level of service and an efficient use of the infrastructure. The capacities targeted following this reorganization are 200 passengers/hour for Schengen departures, 200 passengers/hour for non-Schengen departures, 200 passengers/hour for Schengen arrivals and 200 passengers/hour for non-Schengen arrivals.

The development of a new terminal together with the related supporting infrastructure – access roads, public parking and technical areas – will ensure an additional processing capacity estimated at a minimum of 800 passengers/peak hour. Solutions for the development of the new terminal in the airport perimeter or by taking over some buildings near it, by purchase or expropriation in accordance with the law, will be analyzed.

The platforms are the air operations areas where aircraft handling and parking, boarding, disembarking, and other handling services are carried out, and the taxiway system related to the platforms allows aircraft to be maneuvered on the platform and in the parking positions.

The existing platform (air operations area where aircraft handling and parking activities, boarding, disembarking and other handling services are carried out) will enter a capital repair process, and the new platforms will be planned in relation to the newly created facilities (terminals, hangar spaces, technical areas, etc.), but also to the taxiway system, in order to ensure maximum levels of efficiency and safety.

At the same time, for the smooth functioning of the airport and to maximize operational capabilities, the adjacent infrastructure and hangar and aircraft maintenance facilities for general aviation will be developed.

For the construction of a hangar dedicated to general aviation, several solutions will be analyzed, including the possibility of taking over some buildings near the airport.

Development projects will take into account a program of measures to reduce the impact of noise on the community in the immediate vicinity of the airport.

The financing of the investment objectives provided for in the Strategic Program is carried out from the beneficiary's own sources, bank loans, public funds obtained under the law and other legally constituted sources, based on technical-economic documentation approved according to the legislation in force, in compliance with the regulations in the field of state aid.

Major economic impact

The direct economic impact consists in the generation of jobs (increase in the number of jobs within the airport, which represents a real support for the labor market in the area, the generation of income and high added value from the activities associated with the operation of the airport, in the airport or located near the airport).

The indirect economic impact consists in the generation of jobs for other related fields or with which the airport can develop commercial links, income and added value from the activities that generate products and services necessary for the operation of the airport, as well as its supply with goods, products and services. For example, we can talk here about service distributors necessary to carry out aircraft fueling operations, as well as travel agencies, ticket reservations, rent-a-car, taxi, etc. The induced or triggering economic impact reflects the income-generating economic activity of employees, from companies directly or indirectly associated with the airport's activity, within the national economy. Their income triggers consumption and produces jobs in various other areas of the regional or local economy.

Accelerating or catalytic economic impact: The catalytic economic impact is the result of the fact that the airport functions as a real link that connects the inhabitants of the conurbation and companies with the global market, allowing business interaction, facilitating commercial exchanges, being able to accelerate the attraction of foreign investments in the regional or local economy, encouraging tourism.

Therefore, the airport and implicitly the airport activity generated by its existence facilitates or generates added value to the national, regional, local economy as well as the conurbation in which it is placed.

Brief history of Baneasa Airport

The first documentary attestation in the press of the time of the Bucharest Băneasa International Airport – Aurel Vlaicu takes place on June 7, 1910, when on the “Băneasa field” (the former Băneasa racecourse after 1920), the pioneer of Romanian aviation, Aurel Vlaicu, presents some developments with the plane built by him, at the air show organized at that time.

Băneasa Airport is considered an aviation unit since 1921, in its current geographical position.

1909 The first flights in the Baneasa area were made by Louis Bleriot from a private racecourse.

Since 1912, when George Valentin Bibescu, established on his sister's estate, first the Băneasa West Airport (located in the western part of the Bucharest-Ploiesti Highway) and then the Băneasa Airport (in the northern area of the current site, positioned in the eastern area of the Bucharest-Ploiesti Highway), using as a take-off-landing runway the grassy runway which, until recently, constituted the reserve and safety runway of the airport.

1912 The Romanian National Air League organizes the first flight school on Baneasa. After 1912 the aerodrome became an airport and aeronautical activities diversified and expanded, including a civil pilot school for civil aviation (later also a military one) and the Royal Air Club of Romania.

1920 The Franco-Romanian Air Navigation Company was established based on Romanian capital and French technical equipment. This was the first air transport company in the world, for passengers, cargo and mail.

November 12, 1922 The first intercontinental air line between Europe and Asia was inaugurated on the route Paris – Strasbourg – Prague – Vienna – Bucharest (Băneasa) – Constantinople.

1923 The workshops of the Franco-Romanian Air Navigation Company were established at Baneasa Airport, with the activity of repairs, the production of spare parts and basic components. These workshops preceded the Bucharest aircraft company (now ROMAERO).

1930 Conventions were signed with Poland and Czechoslovakia that contributed to the development of Baneasa airport as an international airport.

1942 The first concrete runway in Romania is built at Baneasa Airport.

1947 – 1952 The new building of the airport is built, which, according to the plans of a collective of architects, was conceived as a propeller with three blades, which makes the airport represent one of the architectural jewels of Romania.

Until 1970, Bucharest Baneasa Airport was the only airport in Bucharest and the only international airport in Romania.

After this period, the Airport's activity was dedicated to taking over domestic flights.