Departure
98%
vs 95% ▲ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Palanga International Airport lies on the Baltic coast in western Lithuania, serving the resort town of Palanga as well as Klaipeda and the wider Samogitia region. It is Lithuania's third-busiest airport, with a single long instrument runway, full air traffic control services and scheduled links to a handful of European cities, making it a straightforward and well-equipped destination for a simulated cross-country into the Baltic states.
Palanga International Airport sits near the Baltic Sea resort town of Palanga in Klaipeda County, western Lithuania. It is a regional but fully international airport, the third largest in the country, handling short and medium-range scheduled and charter services for the coastal resorts of Palanga and the city of Klaipeda as well as parts of Samogitia and western Latvia. For a simulator pilot it offers a single long hard runway with an ILS, proper air traffic control, and a coastal setting that makes for an interesting VFR or IFR arrival off the Baltic.
The airport is located close to the Baltic coast a few kilometres north of Palanga town, with Klaipeda around 30 kilometres to the south and the Latvian city of Liepaja roughly 60 kilometres further north. It provides approach, tower and ATIS services, indicating that it sits within controlled airspace appropriate to a large civil aerodrome, and it is equipped for instrument approaches to its main runway.
The airport has a single physical runway, 01/19, a hard-surfaced strip a little under 7,000 feet long in each published direction, fully lit and equipped with an ILS on the 19 approach. Its length and surface make it suitable for the full range of airliner and general aviation traffic likely to be flown to Palanga in a simulator.
Pilots should expect the following frequencies at Palanga: APPROACH on 124.3 MHz, ATIS on 127.8 MHz, RMP (apron/ramp) on 131.5 MHz, and TOWER on 118.3 MHz. The main runway, 01/19, is served by an ILS, supporting instrument approaches into the airport.
Palanga Airport began operations in 1937 at a site around 7 kilometres east of the present terminal, near the Palanga-Darbenai road, where Lithuanian Air Force pilots trained. In 1939 it became the base for the first scheduled airline service in Lithuania, on the Kaunas-Palanga route. During the Soviet occupation the airfield was used by the Soviet Air Force, and a new airstrip and facilities were built at the current site in the post-Second World War period. The airport was converted for civilian use in 1963, and in 1991, following Lithuanian independence, it was re-registered as a state-owned national airport. Through the 1990s the airport was steadily modernised: the passenger terminal was renovated between 1994 and 1997, the flight control centre was refurbished in 1994-95, the runway surface was renewed in 1996-97, and the apron and taxiways were rebuilt in 1998; in 1997 the airport also joined Airports Council International. Lithuania's accession to the European Union brought a sharp rise in passenger numbers from 2004, and infrastructure expansion continued with a new North Terminal completed in 2007 to meet Schengen border requirements. Between June and October 2007 runway 01/19 itself was lengthened and fitted with high-intensity lighting and embedded centreline lights, work that opened the way for longer-range route services.
Palanga remains Lithuania's third-largest airport, providing scheduled and seasonal charter services linking the Baltic coast resorts and Klaipeda with a number of European destinations, historically including airBaltic, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Ryanair, Scandinavian Airlines, SkyUp and Wizz Air routes. Two adjoining terminal buildings handle Schengen and non-Schengen traffic on a single ground-floor level, with passengers moved to and from aircraft by shuttle rather than jet bridge. The airport's tower, approach and ATIS services and its ILS-equipped main runway make it a capable and realistic destination for simulated airline or general aviation operations along the Baltic coast.
