Cluj International Airport is an international airport serving Cluj-Napoca, Romania. It is located in the Someșeni district, about east of the city centre. Opened in 1932 as Someșeni Airport, it is named after Romanian revolutionary Avram Iancu.

In 2025, the airport handled over 3.5 million passengers, making it the second-busiest airport in Romania by passenger traffic, after Henri Coandă International Airport in Bucharest.

History Early years

The Cluj Airport was founded on 1 April 1932 by the Romanian Ministry of Industry and Trade. Until the civil airport was built, the area was used as a military airfield. On 15 December 1917, the County Council of Kolozsvár (today Cluj-Napoca) gave land in the settlement of Szamosfalva (today the Someșeni district of Cluj-Napoca) in order to develop a military airport.Royal Hungarian Ministry of Defense, under the law. LXVIII, 1912, Art. 19. document No. 447238/1917 After the Union of Transylvania with Romania, the Someșeni Military Aerodrome was used for the first civil operations by the National Service of Air Navigation (). The SNNA was set up in 1928 by the Romanian Ministry of War for opening an air transportation line between Cluj and Bucharest. The first passenger plane landed on 2 August 1928.Gaal György: Kolozsvár kétezer esztendeje dátumokban, in: Dáné Tibor Kálmán (et al., szerk.): Kolozsvár 1000 éve (A 2000. október 13–14-én rendezett konferencia előadásai) (Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület, Magyar Közművelődési Egyesület, Kolozsvár, 2001) 351. o. The first aircraft used was the Farman-Goliath aircraft, a twin-engine plane with space for ten passengers built by the Farman Aviation Works. Later, the Bucharest-Cluj service was operated by LARES (Liniile Aeriene Române Exploatate de Stat, Romanian Airlines Operated by the State) with Junkers F 13 planes.

In 1933, Cluj Airport was declared an International Airport by the Romanian Government. The first international flight, a CSA Czech Airlines Prague-Cluj-Bucharest flight, took place on 11 September 1933. The aircraft used on this route were eight-seat Avia-Fokker aircraft. In the following years, several new routes were opened, such as the Aeroflot Moscow-Cluj-Prague flight, opened on 15 November 1935, which was operated with 14-seat McDonnell Douglas DC-2 twin-engine aircraft, registered as USSR-M25 and USSR-M26. Domestic flights were also operated in this period, such as Cluj-Satu-Mare and Cernăuți-Cluj-Arad using Lockheed Model 10 Electra ten-passenger aircraft and de Havilland Dragon Rapide aircraft. In the late 1930s, the airport recorded steady growth and the employees' number rose from 6 in 1934 to 16 in 1939. The passenger terminal was also built in this period, being inaugurated in 1939.

Development since the 1990s

The airport remained a domestic airport until September 1996, when it was once again opened to both international passenger and cargo traffic. The extension of the terminal building was also started in 1996 and since August 1997, it is run by the Cluj County Council. By 2001, the extension of the airport building was finished, the runway lighting system was modernized, and an Instrument Landing System (ILS) CAT I was iinstalled.

In 2007 and 2008, the airport posted year-over-year growth of 60% and 93% respectively, reaching over 750,000 passengers in 2008.

The construction of a new terminal, capable of handling 2 million passengers annually, started on 26 June 2007. The arrivals hall was inaugurated on 22 May 2008, followed by the new departures hall, with a total area of , inaugurated on 15 May 2009. The connecting building between the two terminals was inaugurated in November 2009. The total project cost was an estimated €40 million. In February 2009, the ILS equipment was upgraded to CAT II.

Cluj Airport exceeded the 1,000,000 passenger mark in 2010. On 8 September 2011, the construction works for building a new runway of began. The work represented the first phase of the investment that aims at a take-off/landing runway of . The new runway 07/25 officially went into operation on 26 October 2013. The old runway 08/26 became a taxiway, after the new runway opened.

In 2014, ROMATSA held a competition for the creation of a new control tower for Cluj-Napoca Airport. Of the 22 projects that were submitted in the competition, as winner the project of Outline Architecture Office was chosen, an architectural design office based in Bucharest. The tower resembles a tulnic and will have a height of 42 m. The costs for the construction of the new control tower will be borne by ROMATSA.

In June 2023, the airport began work to expand the departure hall and the apron.Opened on 31 May 2024, the extension added three more gates to the previous nine.

On 24 November 2023 the Avram Iancu Cluj International Airport celebrated serving its 3,000,000th passenger, becoming the first regional airport in Romania to exceed this threshold.

For the future, the airport development project foresees the construction of the second terminal with an area of .

Airlines and destinations The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Cluj-Napoca:airportcluj.ro - Flight Schedule. Retrieved 6 August 2022airportcluj.ro - Destinations retrieved 23 October 2022

Statistics

+ Monthly traffic figures (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 & 2026) Month 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Change2024vs. 20232025Change2025vs. 20242026Change2025vs. 2024 YTD (2026)January 190,848 40,321 107,538 200,655 207,451 3.4% 216,798 4.5%220,568 1.7% 220,568February 180,148 29,333 92,718 187,686 203,685 8.5% 211,381 3.8%230,495 9.0% 451,063March 85,204 37,954 133,304 211,882 222,883 5.2% 244,811 9.8%258,062 5.4% 709,126April 14,370 64,437 222,519 280,072 246,199 12.1% 286,840 16.5%299,609 4.4%1,008,735May 14,730 83,300 241,694 289,749 271,017 6.5% 305,115 12.6%314,565 3.1%1,323,300June 18,710 130,314 262,709 310,316 297,519 4.1% 338,756 13.9%July 83,953 216,829 295,549 349,951 339,456 2.9% 378,096 11.4%August 100,311 249,863 338,127 356,078 354,961 0.3% 389,264 9.7%September 83,277 223,490 286,280 315,461 354,954 12.5% 358,075 0.9%October 56,927 152,400 262,409 290,999 309,059 6.2% 329,318 6.6%November 28,375 103,870 198,842 227,778 236,193 3.7% 263,920 11.7%December 49,798 131,096 203,279 220,123 223,070 1.3%259,76016.4%

+ Busiest routes from Avram Iancu International Airport (2018) Rank Airport Passengers Carriers1 Bucharest 490,428 Blue Air, TAROM, Wizz Air2 London - Luton 315,630 Blue Air, Wizz Air3 Munich 163,917 Lufthansa4 Bergamo 110,588 Wizz Air5 Paris - Beauvais 101,013 Wizz Air6 Barcelona 93,467 Vueling, Wizz Air7 Bologna 77,194 Wizz Air8 Rome - Ciampino Airport 69,914 Wizz Air9 Charleroi 69,507 Wizz Air10 Madrid 66,463 Wizz Air11 Dortmund 66,453 Wizz Air 12 Tel Aviv - Ben Gurion Airport 65,944 Blue Air, Wizz Air13 Eindhoven 50,554 Wizz Air14 Dublin 48,930 Blue Air15 Frankfurt am Main Airport 48,732 Lufthansa16 Basel/Mulhouse Airport 45,367 Wizz Air17 Valencia 43,355 Wizz Air18 Zaragoza 43,198 Wizz Air Source: Eurostat

+ Busiest routes by country from Avram Iancu International Airport (2022) Rank Country Passengers 2022 Carriers1 United Kingdom 383,345 Blue Air, Ryanair, Wizz Air2 Spain 357,733 Blue Air, Wizz Air3 Germany 357,131 Lufthansa, Wizz Air4 Italy 319,934 Wizz Air5 Romania 313,026 Blue Air, HiSky, TAROM6 France 206,659 Blue Air, Wizz Air7 Belgium 74,248 Wizz Air8 Greece 71,034 Animawings, Blue Air, Hello Air, Hello Jet, HiSky, Tarom, Wizz Air9 Turkey 68,394 Aerro Direck, Air Bucharest, Animawings, Blue Air, Corendon Airlines, Hello Jet, HiSky, Tailwind, Tarom10 Ireland 59,756 Blue Air, HiSky, Ryanair Source: Eurostat

Ground transportation

Road The airport is located east of the city centre on the European route E576. The drive from the city centre takes about 20 minutes.

Public transportation

CTP Cluj Napoca, the local public transport company, operates its trolleybus No. 8 that connects the airport with the Mihai Viteazul Square in the City Center and trolleybus No. 5 to the Main Rail Station. Other suburban lines connects the airport to the neighboring localities.The Mihai Viteazul Square may be reached directly from the airport exit via the A1E express line, which has no stops along the way.

Accidents and incidents On 5 September 1986 at about 19:45, a fully loaded Antonov An-24RV aircraft departed Bucharest Otopeni Airport, bound for Cluj-Napoca. When the landing procedure began, one of the flight attendants, Aurelia Grigore, realized that the aircraft was landing at higher than normal speed. When the main landing gear touched the ground, it bounced repeatedly until the aircraft stopped. The front of the aircraft was on fire. Grigore realized they had an emergency situation. With her flight attendant colleague, she decided to start deplaning passengers. She opened the emergency exit and she let the stairs down, but the stairs weren't touching the ground because the front gear was broken. She was helped by Emil Hossu, a famous actor. "He was one of the few people that didn't panic and helped us evacuate the aircraft in safety", said Grigore. After evacuating the passengers they returned to help the pilots who were trapped in the cockpit. "The cockpit was on fire and we lost any faith that we could save them". The next moments were horrible for all passengers and flight crew. The aircraft was destroyed by flames and with the pilots still on board. After 10 minutes, they saw one of the copilots trying to escape through a window. "He told us his foot was stuck and that he couldn't get it out. We tried to help him, but we couldn't. Finally, he managed to get out of the aircraft on fire. He was completely burned, you couldn't even look at him. It was terrible. The other 2 pilots burned alive as we watched them, helpless". The copilot died also. He was transported to the ER but died the next day because of the burns. The authorities said that the accident was due to an equipment malfunction. The 3 pilots were the only casualties.

See also Aviation in Romania List of airports in Romania List of the busiest airports in Romania Transport in Romania

References

External links

Official website Accident history for CLJ at Aviation Safety Network