Katowice-Muchowiec Airport (Polish: Lotnisko Katowice-Muchowiec, ICAO code: EPKM) is a general aviation (mainly sport use) airport in the Muchowiec neighborhood of Katowice, Poland.
It has one inoperative concrete runway, RWY 05/23 with the dimensions of 1109 x 30 metres (3640 x 98 feet). There is a displaced threshold length of 221 meters (725 ft) on both RWY 05 and RWY 23, yielding a landing distance of 888 metres (2915 ft). However, coal-mining activity damaged the runway and it is no longer used. The parallel 770-metre grass RWY 05/23 is also closed per NOTAM until the end of 2007. This leaves the 655-metre grass RWY 07/25 as the sole working runway.
The airport was built in the 1920s, and was used for civil aviation including scheduled passenger traffic, starting in 1926 with service to Warsaw. Ground damage due to coal-mining activity eliminated the passenger traffic, and now only the sport use remains with infrequent general aviation arrivals and departures.
On the other hand, because of the long commute from the city centre to the 30 km-distant Katowice International Airport, it has been proposed to the Katowice government in 2005 that a city airport be built at Katowice-Muchowiec Airport, offloading Katowice International for general aviation as well as some smaller scheduled traffic, serving primarily the business community and STOL aircraft.
Read more about Katowice-Muchowiec Airport: Modernisation Proposals
Famous quotes containing the word airport:
“Airplanes are invariably scheduled to depart at such times as 7:54, 9:21 or 11:37. This extreme specificity has the effect on the novice of instilling in him the twin beliefs that he will be arriving at 10:08, 1:43 or 4:22, and that he should get to the airport on time. These beliefs are not only erroneous but actually unhealthy.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)