CZECH REPUBLIC - Brno

[Tam Nugent]

Built as a civilian airport in 1958, it was commandeered for almost exclusively military use from 1982 to 1991 when it was returned to civilian use following the Velvet Revolution. The current airport replaced the old airport (Staré Letiště), traces of which can still be seen from the air. Staré Letiště is currently a building site, visible towards the top left of attached photo Brno 3.

A freight/fuel only railway spur runs to the airport.

The attached photos were taken on 6th May 2011 from a Ryanair aircraft with dirty windows

Brno 1.jpg Brno 2.jpg Brno 3.jpg

I'll be back at Brno on Tuesday and will try to get some more photos.

[Tam Nugent]

Some recent photos of Brno, taken on 31/5/2011

[Tam Nugent]

Some more photos from 31/5/2011

[Tam Nugent]

Some more photos from 31/5/2011.

[Tam Nugent]

Some more photos from 31/5/2011.

[Tam Nugent]

Last two from 31/5/2011, taken just after take-off on the Ryanair flight to Stansted.

[PNK]

Thanks for posting the photos Tam. The bomb proof hangars are interesting.

[REF]

Excellet set of photos Tam, as PNK says, those bomb proof hangars look amazing, I assume the doors no longer close on them? I like the 'one man and his horse' photo too, was he just wandering across the airffield?

[canberra]

Of course Brno is probably most famous as the birthplace of the BREN gun.

[Tam Nugent]

I don't know about the doors, but I'll keep an eye out next time I'm there. I don't recall having seen them closed at any time in the past, but it's not something I would normally look out for. The guy with the horse is a bit of a mystery; I have seen him there before, charging along the grass between the runway and taxiway just before the Ryanair flight took off, so perhaps he is there to chase the birds away. Believe it or not, just after I took those photos, the aircraft actually braked fairly hard on the taxiway to let two pheasants cross!

Another quaint thing about Brno, which must be alarming to those not in the know, is that a fire tender meets every Ryanair flight and stands nose-to-nose with the aircraft on the stand for the duration of it's stay, with the foam nozzle pointing at the cockpit window. Perhaps spontaneous combustion is a big thing there

Something else that I noticed last time I was there is that there are no tug vehicles - the aircraft move under their own steam on the ground. They also have two shiny new airside buses to serve the handful of flights that they have each day. I guess they might be useful in inclement weather, as it's only a couple of hundred yards walk to the terminal. I got a ride on one once when they used it to separate the "Priority Boarding" passengers from the riff-raff.