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Bucharest Henri Coandă International Airport

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Template:Airport frame Template:Airport title Template:Airport infobox Template:Runway title Template:Runway Template:Runway |- !bgcolor="#0099FF" colspan="4"|Statistics (2004) |- ! colspan="3"|Number of Passengers |2,644,305 |- ! colspan="3"|Aircraft Movements |42,468 |- |- !bgcolor="#0099FF" colspan="4"|Statistics (2005) |- ! colspan="3"|Number of Passengers |3,035,311 |- ! colspan="3"|Aircraft Movements |53,496 |- Template:Airport end frame Henri Coandă International Airport (Aeroportul Internaţional Henri Coandă in Romanian) is the largest airport in Romania, as well as one of two airports serving Bucharest. The other airport is Băneasa Aurel Vlaicu International Airport. IATA code for Bucharest - all airports - is BUH.

The Henri Coandă airport is located north of the Bucharest metropolitan area, in the town of Otopeni, Ilfov. It is one of the largest airports in Southeastern Europe.

Its previous name was Bucharest Otopeni International Airport (Aeroportul Internaţional Bucureşti Otopeni). In May 2004 it was renamed in honour of Romanian flight pioneer Henri Coandă, the inventor of the aircraft jet engine.

OTP received 3.035.511 passengers by 2005 and the airport is expected to handle 4 million passengers by 2007.

City Access

The airport is currently served by DN1 road in northern Bucharest area; in the future it will be linked to the A3 motorway, currently under construction. The city of Bucharest is accessible by RATB bus 783, which provides a shuttle service, as well as by taxi. There is a proposed plan to link the airport with the Bucharest Metro system (Line M6) and with Gara de Nord (Bucharest Northern Railway Station) by a fast light-rail train.


Terminals

Currently the airport has only one terminal, two halls (Departures Hall - domestic / international, Arrivals Hall), 36 check-in desks, one finger with 13 gates and 5 jetways. A second finger with 7 jetways and a new building terminal on the east side are in project phase.

History

During World War II, the airport in Otopeni was used as an air base of the Third Reich of Hitler. Up to 1965, it was restricted for military use, and was one of the major bases of the Romanian Air Force, with a runway of 1200m. Before 1965, Băneasa Airport was the only airport that Bucharest used for commercial flights. However, with the growth of air traffic, a new commercial airport was constructed in the settlement of Otopeni, where the military air base used to be. The existing runway was modernised, extended up to 3500m, making it even longer than that of Paris' Orly Airport. Also, a new passenger terminal was constructed for domestic and international flights.

In the late 1960s, when President Nixon of the USA visited Romania, a new VIP lounge was created, and in 13 April 1970, the passenger terminal was updated to have a capacity of 1,200,000 passengers per year. The airport slowly become more and more used by airlines, with a growing number of passengers, and in 1986, it entered a new phase of development. A second 3500-metre runway was constructed, as well as related taxiways. The airport lighting system was improved and the capacity was increased to 35-40 airport movements per hour.

In 1992, Otopeni Airport became a regular member of Airport Council International (ACI). In 1997, when 8 years had passed since Romania had escaped from Communism, a development initiative took place. A state-of-the-art International Departures Lounge with a capacity of 1000-1200 passengers per hour was opened, as well as five modern airbridges. In 2000, Phase II of the development initiative continued, and the International Arrivals Terminal was improved.

Currently, the Henri Coandă is one of the most modern in Eastern Europe, and yet development still continues to transform this airport into a state-of-the-art hub for Romanian aviation. Despite this, other airports in Romania are also stealing "market share" from Otopeni, as the launch of the new Angel Airlines operates only from Băneasa. The airports of Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca and the newly-refurbished Iasi are also important hubs for Carpatair.

Airlines

Bucharest OTP is an important airport in Eastern Europe, served by a large variety of European and international airlines. Airlines serving Henri Coandă airport are:

Passenger Airlines

Cargo Airlines

Future development

Due to the fact that the airport its approaching its maximum capacity, a new building terminal and a hotel are in project phase; this is part of airport's development program on the east side; the new building terminal will be connected to the future A3 Bucharest - Braşov motorway.

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