17.09.2020
Lodz Airport is the oldest Polish airport. It was founded in 1925 and still exists today in the same place. Warsaw's Okęcie was established only 10 years later. On September 13, our airport celebrated its 95th anniversary.
On 13 September 1925 Bishop Wincenty Tymieniecki officially opened the airport near Łódź - in Lublinek. It was a great event. In the "Kurier Łódzki" from 1925, we read: "The consecration was made by Bishop Wincenty Tymieniecki in the presence of the deputy government representative Eberhardt, president of the L.O.P. P., local state, military and local authorities and the audience of thousands. The airport was established on the initiative and efforts of the Lodz branch of the State Air Defense League. In our photo, apart from the airport area, you can see a huge newly erected hangar. "After the official ceremony," the astonishing air evolutions were followed with intense attention and signs of the highest admiration. "
The first air route from Warsaw via Łódź to Poznań was launched soon. Soon after, another one - from Warsaw via Łódź to Kraków.
Until the outbreak of World War II, passengers could fly from Łódź to Poznań, Warsaw, Kraków, Vilnius and Lviv.
Franciszek Żwirko trained pilots
In 1929, the Lodz Aviation Club was founded, later transformed into the Lodz Aero Club. It was founded by Jan Andrzejewski and Wojciech Matz. The club gathered enthusiasts of flying.
The beginnings were difficult. There was a shortage of pilots and equipment. It was then that Captain Stanisław Skarżyński, who a few years later was the first Pole to cross the Atlantic, arranged the first Polish pilot training. One of the most famous Polish pilots, Lieutenant Franciszek Żwirko, became the commander of the Military Aviation Training course. Currently, Żwirko is the patron of the Łódź Aeroclub.
Before the war, young people dreaming of a career as an aviator came to Łódź. They trained on Henriot-28 planes. Apart from Żwirka, Paweł Zołotow, Antoni Wolniczek and Antoni Mazurek also taught flying. With time, they started training gliders' pilots. The Lodz Aeroclub was constantly developing - it bought its plane - the Sido-1 high-wing aircraft with registration marks SP-ACZ. With time, the number of planes increases, and just before the outbreak of the war, the Aeroclub had ten planes and three gliders.
During the war, the Germans took the airport
In the first days of September 1939, two squadrons of the Air Force from the "Łódź" Army were stationed at the airport. The next two, as well as a squadron, stood at the Widzew-Zdżary airfield near Ksawerów. The airport was bombed on 2 and 6 September 1939. The large part of the infrastructure has survived. The Germans seized the airport as soon as they entered Łódź. From here, the German aircrafts that spread leaflets over Warsaw in September 1939, took off.
The Germans expanded the airport during the war. They built a concrete runway 1,200 meters long east-west (previously it was grassy north-south). Soviet prisoners of war from the camp at ul. Odrzańska worked at the constructions. The airport was enlarged by 30 hectares.
At the end of the war, the Germans retreating from Łódź largely destroyed the airport infrastructure. The facility was taken over by Soviet soldiers, and in mid-1945 by the Polish army. The 1st Independent Engineering and Airport Battalion under the command of Capt. Eng. Chibizov stationed here. Its task was to rebuild the damaged airport.
Lublinek was second airport after Okęcie
Lublinek held the second position among Polish airports after Okęcie. There were flights from Lodz to Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, Katowice, Gdańsk and Wrocław. They were served mostly by Li-2 aircrafts (on the photo).
In 1958 the authorities of the People's Republic of Poland degraded Lublinek in the hierarchy of Polish airports. They ordered to suspend passenger traffic. It was a political decision. Probably the planes did not match the image of the working-class city of Łódź and the communist authorities recognized that the inhabitants of Łódź could use the airport in Okęcie. Since then, the airport has served only the Łódź Aeroclub. There were glider flights, parachute jumps, small private planes landed.
On June 13, 1987, a great event took place at the airport. Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass during his 3rd pilgrimage to Poland. 700,000 people took part in it. 1,556 children received communion and 100 among them received communion from the hands of the Pope.
In the early 1990s, President Grzegorz Palka began efforts to restore regular passenger traffic in Lublinek. The company Port Lotniczy Łódź was established. A modern chapter in the history of the airport began.
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