| Balchik Airfield | |
| Native Name: | Летище Балчик |
| Icao: | LBWB |
| Location: | Balchik, Bulgaria |
| Type: | Airfield |
| Elevation: | 196m (643feet) |
| Coordinates: | 43.4244°N 28.1808°W |
| Pushpin Map: | Bulgaria |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location within Bulgaria |
| Owner: | Bulgarian Government |
| Controlledby: | Bulgarian Air Force |
| R1-Number: | 15/33 |
| R1-Length: | 2483m (8,146feet) |
| R1-Surface: | Concrete |
| Used: | 1941–present |
| Footnotes: | Source: Sofia Airport EAD |
Balchik Airport (Bulgarian: Летище Балчик),[1] is a general aviation airfield and reduced former military airbase in the town of Balchik, northeast Bulgaria, on the Black Sea coast. In August 2011 the Bulgarian government transformed Balchik airbase from a military to a civilian airport and it became part of the assets of the state-owned company Sofia Airport EAD.[2]
Due to its strategic location, the former military airfield has been home to different military aviation formations and performed different types of tasks related to the country's defence. Despite major structural changes in the Bulgarian Air Force, the disbandment and closure of military airbases, Balchik airbase continues to perform reduced defence-related tasks.[3] [4]
The intention to organize civil flights at Balchik airfield and its use as both a military airbase and a civilian airport established Balchik as a non-commercial regional transport hub, providing jobs and better use of the resources in this region. On 3 May 2012 at 19:06 the first private civil flight "Prague-Varna-Balchik" landed, via neighbouring Varna Airport due to the lack of passport border control at Balchik airport.[5] The airport's general aviation civil aviation license at this stage is for non-commercial flights with a maximum takeoff weight up to 5.7 tonnes and for flights within the European Union 48 hours prior notice is required for the airport to provide a border police control presence; this is due to Bulgaria currently not being a member of the EU Schengen Area.
Balchik airfield is located 2 kilometres northwest of the centre of Balchik on an area of 3700 decares of flat terrain, at an altitude of 188 metres and the runway is about one kilometre from the coastline. Due to this, its strategic location is called "the unsinkable aircraft carrier of Bulgaria". Its location allows when taking off in the direction of the Black Sea to immediately begin the descent to 150–180 metres, which makes it unique in Bulgaria. The runway has a length of 2483 x 52 metres.
The military airbase operated until 1998 as the 6th Fighter Air Base of the Bulgarian Air Force, when the last MiG-21bis and Aero L-29 Delfíns were transferred to the 26th Reconnaissance Air Base, ending the base's period as a front-line military airbase. Since 1998, the airbase has been active as the 6th Aviation Material Preservation Base for tasks related to other operating military airbases with fighter jets such as the MiG-29, Su-25 and Albatros L-39ZA trainer, transport/utility aircraft such as the Alenia C-27J Spartan or helicopters such as the Mil Mi-24V Hind E, Mil Mi-17 and Eurocopter AS532 Cougar. The reduced staff keep the airfield infrastructure ready to accept military aircraft participating in tactical training flights in naval exercises, parachuting, airlifts, air-sea rescue and training at the Shabla air force air gunnery firing range.
The first information about the establishment of an airfield in the region is from 1 July 1935. The town of Balchik was at that time within the Kingdom of Romania. The established civil airfield served the Balchik-Constanţa-Bucharest air route and was probably established by the will of the Romanian royal dynasty; to use the resort facilities of the region and the summer palace residence of Queen Marie of Romania, Balchik Palace is located 2 kilometres south-west of Balchik. The air traffic was carried out by several 6-seater Junkers (Junkers F 13) aircraft.
By virtue of the Treaty of Craiova in 1940, Southern Dobruja was returned to Bulgaria. The departing Romanian authorities had practically destroyed everything related to the airfield - the equipment had been removed, the windows were broken or the buildings half-destroyed, the water wells blocked. Even the runway was ploughed across. The following year, the Bulgarian government approved plans by the defence ministry to use the airfield for military purposes.
The first military aircraft based on Balchik airfield were in fact several aircraft of types Heinkel He 111 and Junkers Ju 88 of the German Luftwaffe, mainly for reconnaissance flights during World War Two. The Luftwaffe also rebuilt the airfield.[6] With the German invasion of the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, this small German military unit left the borders of Bulgaria.
To ensure the protection of German transports during their passage from Kyustendja to the Bosphorus, a joint troop formation was established on August 4, 1941, under the command of Captain Koychev. This combined force included a squadron from the 223rd Platoon of the 2nd Army Air Regiment, equipped with five Letov-Šmolik Š-328 Vrana aircraft manufactured in the Czechoslovak Republic, stationed at Balchik airfield.
To effectively cover the entire Bulgarian coast, an additional four Vrana aircraft were deployed at Sarafovo airfield near Burgas, forming a squadron of the 333rd Platoon of the 3rd Army Air Regiment. Although lacking specialized anti-submarine warfare equipment, the Vrana aircraft were armed with 4 to 6 bombs and four machine guns, making them capable of deterring submarines and safeguarding convoys.
The primary objective of this formation, stationed at two locations within the designated area of responsibility, was to provide consistent security along the route from Kyustendja to the mouth of the Kamchia River and onwards to the Rezovska River. While operationally subordinate to the army headquarters, specific tasks related to the protection of transports were coordinated with the representative of the German General Command Post at Cape Galata.