Novi Sad outlines airport development plans

The Department for Urban Planning and Construction of the City of Novi Sad in Northern Serbia has published a draft plan for the development of the local Čenej Airport, which is to be used for commercial purposes. The plan calls for the construction of a paved runway and terminal building. "Čenej Airport is to be utilised for commercial flights, leisure charters, worker flights and air taxi operations. In addition, it will continue to be used for agricultural and sporting purposes. Regional operations envisage linking Northern Serbia with business centres in the former Yugoslav republics and other neighbouring countries". The Urban Planning Department added, "The length of the runway during the first phase of the development of Čenej Airport should be at least 1.500 metres long and thirty metres wide. It will be lengthened to 2.500 metres and widened to 45 metres in the second phase. The runway will stretch from the north-west to the south-east, avoiding residential areas". There are no issues over land rights and ownership, which have delayed numerous planned airport projects across the former Yugoslavia. The plan was put up for public review on July 22 and will be on show until August 5.

Čenej Airport

Exactly a year ago Novi Sad's assembly voted in favour of the Urban Planning Office to draft the airport's development plans, calling for the construction of a "modern airport that would fulfil necessary requirements for the conduct of commercial air traffic". The current sports and agriculture field in the village of Čenej boasts only a grass runway. Novi Sad hopes to develop the airport by 2021 when it is to become the European Capital of Culture. "The airport should be in the C category, catering for aircraft up to 100 seats. Its development should be carried out in several phases, which should include supporting infrastructure, such as hotel accommodation", the head of the Urban Planning Office, Dušan Miladinović, said. The value of the project is estimated at twenty million euros.

The Čenej airfield is located fifteen kilometres north of Novi Sad. The city itself is just over ninety kilometres north of Belgrade, with travel by car taking less than an hour to Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport. A high-speed rail link is currently under construction between the two cities and scheduled for completion in 2022. The development of Novi Sad's airport has been discussed since 1988. In 1994, work on the airport's control tower began, however, it was never completed. In 1999, a project was drafted for the airport's development, while an environmental impact study, geological study, and feasibility study were also undertaken. In 2004, the private charter airline Di Air, from Montenegro, operated a promotional service from Tivat to Novi Sad with some twenty passengers on board the L-410 Turbolet aircraft. In 2012, the city's former administration commissioned the design of the airport's passenger terminal (pictured above). Čenej Airport carries the IATA code QND and ICAO code LYNS.

Novi Sad Airport location and other nearby airports

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