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Lodrino Air Base, listed as LSML, sits in the Ticino valley near Lodrino in southern Switzerland and was for decades a Swiss Air Force fighter and liaison base. It has since been transferred to civilian operation as Riviera Airport, retaining a single hard runway aligned 16/34 that once doubled as an emergency strip on the adjacent A3 motorway.
Lodrino Air Base is a small airfield at Lodrino, in the Riviera district of Ticino, Switzerland, that served for many years as a Swiss Air Force fighter and training station. It is of interest to the simulator pilot chiefly for its history as a mountain-valley military field, its unusual link to the A3 motorway, which was engineered so it could serve as an emergency runway, and its transition into a small civilian aviation and maintenance centre now known as Riviera Airport.
The airfield lies at Lodrino in the Riviera area of Canton Ticino, southern Switzerland, at coordinates 46.2942 N, 8.9929 E. It was long used as the designated alternate aerodrome for Locarno Air Base, reflecting its position within the same Ticino valley system.
Lodrino has a single physical runway orientated 16/34, surfaced in hard standing. Runway 16 measures 2,631 feet and runway 34 measures 2,607 feet. The field elevation is 843 feet. There is no ILS approach.
No communications frequencies are published for Lodrino Air Base, consistent with its origins as a controlled military airfield rather than a field offering routine civil air-ground or ATC service to visiting traffic. There is no ILS or other instrument approach associated with the field.
Historically, Pilatus PC-7 basic trainers of the Swiss Air Force practised circuits at Lodrino, and PC-6 Turbo Porters used the field to despatch paratroopers for jumps over the nearby Locarno area. Under current civilian operation, visiting fixed-wing traffic is only permitted with authorization from the airport operator, so any circuit or joining procedure for a simulated flight should assume prior coordination is required rather than an open, uncontrolled join.
Lodrino Air Base was built as a Swiss Air Force airfield and was used over the years by fighter types including the de Havilland Venom, Hawker Hunter and de Havilland Vampire, as well as various Swiss Air Force liaison aircraft. A distinctive feature of the site was the adjoining A3 motorway, which was constructed so that it could, if necessary, be pressed into service as an additional runway; this capability was exercised in practice, with Strada 91 being the last such exercise. The base served as the designated alternate for Locarno Air Base, and PC-7 trainers and PC-6 paratroop aircraft made regular use of the field. The airfield's control tower was partially dismantled in 2010, after which the building was taken over by the Swiss Drone Center and other drone-related companies. Military flight operations at Lodrino ceased to be run directly by the Swiss Air Force, with local military flying subsequently coordinated from Locarno Air Base. The site was transferred to a new civilian entity, Riviera Airport, on 6 January 2023, and from July 2023 the ICAO location indicator LSPR replaced the former LSML and LSXR codes.
The field now operates under civilian management as Riviera Airport, hosting RUAG Aviation's maintenance centre for propeller aircraft including the Pilatus PC-6 and PC-7, with earlier work also carried out on the Eurocopter EC635, ADS-95 and Pilatus PC-9. Other resident operators include Heli TV, which runs local cargo helicopter flights, Karen SA, which operates passenger flights, a maintenance base for Leonardo helicopters, and facilities for pilot and technical engineering training. Visiting fixed-wing aircraft are only permitted with prior authorization from the operator, so pilots should treat the field as requiring PPR.
