Timișoara Traian Vuia International Airport () is an international airport serving Timișoara, Romania. Located in the historical region of Banat, the airport is named in honor of Traian Vuia, a Romanian flight pioneer and a Timiș County native. It is the fourth-busiest Romanian airport in terms of air traffic and the main air transportation hub for the western part of Romania and for the Danube–Criș–Mureș–Tisa Euroregion.
Timișoara Airport is one of the four airports in Romania that has a runway longer than 3 km (the other three are Henri Coandă Intl. and Aurel Vlaicu Intl. in Bucharest and Mihail Kogălniceanu Intl. in Constanța). It serves as an operating base for Wizz Air and is considered a backup airport for Bucharest (OTP), Budapest (BUD) and Belgrade (BEG).
Name
Timișoara Airport has had several names over time. At its beginnings it was called Timișoara Communal Airport. During the communist period, it was called Giarmata Airport, after the name of the village with which it borders. It received its current name on 6 February 2003.
Location
The airport is located 12 km northeast of the center of Timișoara. The airport is located in the homonymous district (Aeroport) and borders Giarmata-Vii, component village of the commune of Ghiroda. The access to the airport is made on European route E70 from Timișoara to Bucharest.
History
1915–1917: Base for German zeppelins
The first air base in Timiș County was operational between November 1915 and April 1917, on the communal grassland of Dudeștii Noi. It was a German military air base, used for stationing, loading and repairing zeppelins. During World War I, zeppelins erected from the base in Dudeștii Noi bombed Bucharest, Ploiești, Chișinău and Thessaloniki. After the closure of this air base, in 1919, the villagers tried to dismantle it piece by piece, but the metal framework of the hall that once housed the German zeppelins collapsed on them, and five people died.
1935: First civil airport
Timișoara's first civil airport was put into use on 10 July 1935, based on a telegraphic order of the Ministry of Interior. It was located on the training ground of the Military Garrison, approximately on the current site of Iulius Town. The first aircraft landed here on 17 July 1935. The official inauguration of the temporary airport took place on 20 July 1935. At the time of its establishment, it had no material endowment. The airport's technical building was made of planks and tarred cardboard and had three rooms and a stove. One room was for the commander, another for the traffic and administrative offices, and the third room served as a waiting room.
On 27 July 1936, following a protocol concluded between the authorities and the airport commander, it was decided to allocate a fund of approximately 5 million lei for the construction of a definitive airport. The money was destined for the construction of a terminal, a hangar and two other buildings that were to serve as radio and telegraph stations, located in the Cioca plainfield. The winner of the auction was the firm of architectural engineer August Schmiedigen from Bucharest, for the amount of 4.5 million lei. During the project, flights to and from Timișoara were further taken over by the temporary airport. On 23 September 1936, the first excavations were carried out at the foundations. The construction of the terminal was completed in 1938, lacking the connections to electricity, telephone, water, sewage, etc. The construction of radio and telegraph stations was completed in the same period, lacking only the necessary equipment. The auction was deemed suspicious, reason why the Superior Administrative Court annulled its adjudication and, consequently, decided to suspend the works.
In 1941, the airport administration relocated to the Cioca plainfield, and flights also took place here. Until its dissolution in 1864–1865, the village of Cioca, known in Hungarian as Csoka, was located on the site of the airport. Due to difficulties in financing the works and the improper soil (clay soil, standing water), the project of relocating the airport was abandoned, and the structures already built were ceded to the Central Meteorological Institute. The Cioca Airfield is used today by owners of recreational aircraft, as well as by utility aviation.