Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Karlovy Vary Airport (LKKV) serves the spa town of Karlovy Vary in western Bohemia, offering a single long hard-surfaced runway equipped with ILS. It handles a mix of general aviation, business jets and seasonal charter services, making it a straightforward and well-equipped destination for VFR and IFR visitors alike.
Karlovy Vary Airport lies just outside the historic spa town of Karlovy Vary in the Karlovarský kraj region of the Czech Republic. Despite its modest size, it is classed as a large airport and is the fourth-busiest in the country, handling scheduled and charter traffic alongside general aviation movements. For a simulator pilot it offers an interesting mix of a substantial ILS-equipped runway, mountainous surrounding terrain, and a genuinely historic setting tied to the spa culture of the region.
The airport sits in western Bohemia in the Karlovarský kraj, close to the town of Karlovy Vary itself, in the village of Olšová Vrata. It lies within the airspace structure of the Czech Republic's aviation system, with radar and tower services provided to support both scheduled airline traffic and general aviation.
Karlovy Vary has a single physical runway, 11/29, of hard construction and lit for night operations. Runway 29 is 7053 feet long and equipped with an ILS approach, while the reciprocal, runway 11, is 6562 feet long. The field elevation is 1978 feet.
Pilots can expect an AFIS service on 121.225 MHz, with ATIS broadcast on 118.955 MHz. A radar service is available on 119.955 MHz, and a tower frequency of 121.23 MHz is also published. The runway 29 approach is served by an ILS.
The airport is situated in the village of Olšová Vrata, roughly six kilometres southeast of the centre of Karlovy Vary. It has long served as the gateway to the spa town and, in the early 2010s, was expanding its facilities, with plans announced in 2011 for a new departure hall. In that period the airport's traffic was dominated by Russian visitors travelling to the spa resorts, with 99 percent of passengers in 2012 recorded as Russian nationals. The operator has also marked wartime aviation heritage locally, with a commemorative press release referencing RAF pilots associated with the airfield's history.
Karlovy Vary Airport today combines commercial passenger operations with general aviation and business aircraft movements, and the operator has advertised the addition of commercial aircraft maintenance facilities on site. Seasonal charter services have operated from the field to destinations such as Antalya, Burgas and Tashkent, flown by carriers including Smartwings, BH Air and Uzbekistan Airways. The airport office keeps hours of Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 15:00 local time, and prior permission is required for some flight operations.