Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Bastia-Poretta is Corsica's busy northern gateway airport, lying in the plain at Lucciana on the east coast some way south-southeast of Bastia itself. It offers a single long paved runway with ILS approach guidance, full radar and tower services, and a good deal of history stretching back to its wartime use as an Allied airfield.
Bastia-Poretta Airport serves the city of Bastia on the northeastern coast of Corsica and is operated by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Bastia and Upper Corsica. It is a substantial, internationally connected airport handling scheduled and charter airline traffic, and for a simulator pilot it offers a long ILS-equipped runway, full ATC services and an interesting wartime history, making it a rewarding and realistic destination for airline or general aviation flights around Corsica.
The airport lies at Lucciana, a commune in Upper Corsica, some 17 km south-southeast of Bastia. It sits at coordinates 42.55 N, 9.4847 E and at an elevation of 16 feet. As a large airport handling scheduled airline traffic, it is served by approach radar and a control tower, indicating that arriving and departing traffic operates within controlled airspace associated with the field.
Bastia-Poretta has a single physical runway, 16/34, 8,320 feet long with a hard surface and runway lighting. Runway 34 is equipped with an ILS for instrument approaches.
The field is served by an AFIS unit, Bastia Info, on 124.725 MHz. Approach services are provided by Bastia Radar on 123.825 MHz, with an additional approach frequency, Bastia App, on 37.85 MHz. The tower, Bastia Tower, operates on 118 MHz, ground movements are handled on 121.825 MHz, and the ATIS broadcast, Bastia ATIS, is transmitted on 125.925 MHz. Runway 34 offers an ILS approach.
The airfield has its origins as Borgo Airfield, used during the Second World War by the United States Army Air Forces Twelfth Air Force. In 1944 it hosted a succession of American fighter, night-fighter, bomber and reconnaissance squadrons, including the 414th, 416th and 417th Night Fighter Squadrons, the 527th Fighter Squadron flying P-47 Thunderbolts, the 5th and 23rd Photographic Reconnaissance Squadrons flying P-38/F-5 Lightnings, the 111th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron with P-51/F-6 Mustangs, and the 47th Bomb Group flying A-20 Havocs and A-26 Invaders; the 42nd Bombardment Wing was headquartered there from September to November 1944. It was from this airfield, on 31 July 1944, that the French aviator and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery took off on a reconnaissance flight over France in a Lockheed P-38 Lightning and disappeared.
Bastia-Poretta is now a large international airport handling regular scheduled and charter services, with Air Corsica as the principal operator alongside carriers such as Air France, easyJet, Eurowings, Lufthansa and others on seasonal and year-round routes linking Corsica to mainland France and other European points.