Departure
92%
vs 95% ▼ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Tuzla International Airport (LQTZ) lies at Dubrave Gornje near Tuzla, in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is the country's second busiest airport after Sarajevo. A former Yugoslav military airbase and NATO logistics hub, it is now a low-cost airline gateway served by a single long hard-surfaced runway with ILS, making it a straightforward but operationally busy destination for a sim pilot flying into northeastern Bosnia.
Tuzla International Airport sits at Dubrave Gornje, within the municipality of Živinice, close to the city of Tuzla in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Operated under the Bosnia and Herzegovina Directorate of Civil Aviation, it is the second largest airport in the country and has become a low-cost hub used heavily by Wizz Air, drawing traffic from the local diaspora and from neighbouring Croatia and Serbia. Its dual civilian and former military heritage, combined with a long, well-equipped ILS runway, gives it an interesting mix of history and modern low-cost operations for anyone planning a visit in the simulator.
The airport lies at Dubrave Gornje, a few kilometres from the city of Tuzla, at coordinates 44.4587 N, 18.7248 E and an elevation of 771 feet. It is a controlled aerodrome with its own approach service, and pilots should expect to operate within controlled airspace around the field given the presence of dedicated approach, tower, ground and clearance delivery frequencies.
Tuzla has a single physical runway, 09/27, 8,297 feet long with a hard surface and runway lighting. An ILS is provided for runway 09, giving instrument approach capability to that end; runway 27 is lit but without a published ILS. The length and surface make it suitable for a wide range of aircraft, from light singles through to the Airbus A320/A321-family jets that form the bulk of scheduled traffic.
Tuzla provides a full suite of ATC and support frequencies: Approach/Departure (APP) on 125.8 MHz, ATIS on 140.325 MHz, Ground/Clearance Delivery (callsign GCCD) on 143.425 MHz, Airfield Operations (OPS) on 142.525 MHz, PMSV Meteorological service on 25.892 MHz, and Tower (TWR) on 130.85 MHz. The runway 09 ILS supports instrument approaches to the field. A NOTAM has introduced a Low Visibility Take-Off (LVTO) procedure at Tuzla, effective from 13 January 2026, which pilots operating in low-visibility conditions should be aware of.
As a controlled aerodrome with approach and tower services, arriving traffic should expect to receive routing and sequencing instructions from Tuzla Approach and Tower rather than fly a self-positioned visual circuit; joining instructions and circuit heights are not published in the available material, so pilots should follow ATC guidance and standard instrument or radar-vectored arrivals via the runway 09 ILS or a visual approach as directed.
Tuzla International was once the largest military airport in the former Yugoslavia and was home to the 350th Reconnaissance Aviation Squadron. In the early 1990s, prior to the Bosnian War, the Yugoslav carrier Air Commerce operated commercial flights from Sarajevo and Tuzla to Austria and Switzerland. The airfield was placed under United Nations Protection Force control in 1992, and from 1996 it became the principal hub for the NATO-led Implementation Force (IFOR) overseeing the Dayton Agreement. In 1998 the Tuzla Canton established International Airport Tuzla as a civilian airport, opening on 10 October 1998 as a joint civilian and military airfield. Following the complete withdrawal of international military forces on 1 December 2006, the airport began implementing the technical standards required by the International Civil Aviation Organization, gaining a provisional Certificate for Public Airport Use in 2008 and an unlimited-validity certificate in 2009. Wizz Air opened an operating base at Tuzla in June 2015, and Turkish Airlines Cargo began freighter services to Istanbul in 2016 using Airbus A330 aircraft to carry Bosnian meat exports. A terminal expansion announced in November 2016 was completed in May 2019. The airport passed half a million passengers for the first time in 2017. Wizz Air added a third based aircraft in 2021 before announcing a reduction and closure of its Tuzla base in 2023; the Greek carrier Lumiwings briefly based aircraft there from December 2023 before withdrawing in February 2025. Turkish low-cost carrier Pegasus Airlines began a weekly service from Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen in August 2024, and Wizz Air reopened its Tuzla base in December 2025 with two Airbus A321neo aircraft.
Tuzla International Airport today functions as a scheduled low-cost airline gateway, with Wizz Air operating a renewed base of A321neo aircraft alongside services from carriers such as Freebird, Corendon Airlines and Pegasus Airlines. Passenger facilities include a duty-free shop, currency exchange, ATMs, a cafe bar and internet access, and the airport publishes daily operating hours of 06:30 to 23:00. A NOTAM introducing a Low Visibility Take-Off procedure took effect on 13 January 2026, which is relevant to any pilot planning operations in marginal visibility.