Bucharest "Aurel Vlaicu" Airport (IATA: BBU, ICAO: LRBS) (largely known as Băneasa Airport or Bucharest City Airport) is located in Băneasa district, 8.5 km (5.3 mi) north of Bucharest, Romania. It was Bucharest's only airport until 1968, when the Otopeni Airport (today Henri Coandă International Airport) was built. It is the second airport in Romania in terms of air traffic.

History

The first flights in the Băneasa area took place in 1909 and they were carried out by the French pilot and aviation pioneer Louis Blériot. In 1912 the first flight school in Romania was opened on Băneasa airfield. This makes Băneasa airport the oldest continuously operating airport in Eastern Europe, and among the oldest five airports in the world.

In 1920, the airport headquartered the first aviation company in Romania, and one of the earliest in the world, the CFRNA (The French - Romanian Company for Air Navigation), the precursor of the Romanian national airline, TAROM. In 1923 the CFRNA built the industrial facilities for aircraft maintenance in Băneasa; on that base the aerospace company Romaero was created in the 1960s.

The current terminal building was designed in the late 1940s and opened in 1952. At that time it was considered one of the finest architectural features of Bucharest. The building consists of a central dome with three distinct wings which represents an airplane propeller with three blades.

During the communist period, Băneasa Airport was TAROM's domestic hub, while Otopeni Airport was used as an international hub. In the early 2000s, TAROM moved all of its activities to Otopeni (renamed Henri Coandă International Airport). Today, the airport is becoming an increasingly important hub for business aviation and for low cost airlines, being the main hub of Blue Air.

Airport numbers

From as low as 20 to 30 passengers per month in 2001-2002, BBU handled 119,000 passengers in 2004 and 2,005,694 passengers in 2009. The increase is one of the largest recorded during the history of modern air transport.

Facilities

The building is a late 1940s design, and was not built to cope with 800,000 passengers per year and departures every 25 minutes. As such, the facilities are extremely undersized and get crowded. The building cannot be expanded, because of its status as a city landmark, and because of sheer lack of space in the airport area.