Pančevo Airfield ( / Aerodrom Pančevo; ) is an aerodrome near the city of Pančevo, Serbia. It has a single grass runway 1,000 metres long and 60 metres wide.
The airfield is mostly used for general aviation operations as well as 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 airfield. 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 (Compagnie franco-roumaine de navigation aérienne) 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 (Compagnie internationale de navigation aérienne) in 1925, which used Pančevo Airfield until May 1927.
See also List of airports in Serbia
External links Pančevo airport information (PDF)