Departure
96%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Locarno Airport (LSZL) is a mixed civil and military aerodrome in the community of Gordola, on the eastern edge of the city of Locarno in Ticino, Switzerland, close to the northern shore of Lake Maggiore. It combines a single paved runway with two grass strips shared by flying clubs, a Swiss Air Force training wing and a busy Rega air-rescue base, making it a distinctive and scenically dramatic Alpine destination for VFR pilots.
Locarno Airport, known locally as Locarno-Magadino and carrying the military ICAO code LSMO, sits in the community of Gordola some seven kilometres east of Locarno's city centre. It is unusual in being a genuinely mixed-use field: civilian traffic shares its runways with the Swiss Air Force's airfield command Locarno, though the military maintains its own taxiways, parking and a large hangar. For a simulator pilot the appeal lies in the combination of Alpine scenery around Lake Maggiore, varied traffic ranging from gliders and skydiving aircraft to Pilatus PC-7 and PC-9 military trainers, and the presence of a round-the-clock Rega helicopter rescue base.
The airfield lies in the Magadino plain near the northern end of Lake Maggiore, within the community of Gordola, about seven kilometres east of central Locarno. The nearest railway connection is the station at Riazzino, some two kilometres away on the Giubiasco-Locarno line, and the airport is served by road via the Cantonale Street linking to Route 13. As a joint civil/military aerodrome with its own tower and ground frequencies, arriving traffic should expect an active, controlled environment rather than an unattended strip.
Locarno has one paved physical runway, 08L/26R, 2632 ft long, hard-surfaced and lit. Two further grass runways run parallel to it: 08C/26C, 2293 ft long and lit, and 08R/26L, lit, with a published length of 2290 ft available on runway 08R and 1966 ft available on runway 26L. There is no ILS at the field.
The field provides an ATIS on 133.455 MHz, a Ground frequency on 121.7 MHz and a Tower frequency on 134.825 MHz. There is no instrument landing system, so arrivals and departures are flown visually.
Specific published circuit heights or joining procedures are not detailed in the available material, but pilots should note that the airfield operates as an active tower-controlled aerodrome shared with military training traffic, and that the local gliding club uses the two grass runways exclusively, so mixed glider, powered and military circuits can be expected.
The airport lies on the Magadino plain close to the northern shore of Lake Maggiore, with the town of Gordola immediately adjacent and Locarno's city centre some seven kilometres to the west. The Riazzino railway station, about two kilometres from the field, and the Route 13 highway running past the airport are useful ground references for pilots orientating themselves on approach.
The civilian side of the airport opened in the summer of 1939, with the military section following that winter. From 1941 the Swiss Air Force made it its principal site for basic flight training of military pilots, taking advantage of the favourable local weather. At the end of the Second World War, Swiss planners identified Locarno-Magadino as one of five airfields selected for modernisation as a second tier of regional airports supporting the country's main urban fields. Between 1999 and 2007 the airfield command invested around 100 million Swiss francs in completely renewing the infrastructure, including a large new hangar fitted with solar power in which all aircraft are housed, and a private, enclosed runway and taxiway serving runway 26R/08L. A further hangar, Hangar 5, was built for the Armee-Aufklärungsdetachement 10 and Fallschirmaufklärer Kompanie 17 units.
Today the airport comprises one paved and two grass runways together with a single terminal. Based operators include the helicopter charter company Eliticino, a partner of Heliswiss; Para Centro, described as Europe's largest skydiving centre; the flight school Aero Locarno; the maintenance company Aeromeccanica; and Rega Base 6, whose A109 air-rescue helicopters operate around the clock. The bulk of movements are civilian VFR training flights, Swiss Air Force training sorties, Eliticino helicopter operations and the local gliding club, which uses the two grass runways exclusively. On the military side, the Pilatus PC-7 is the principal type used for basic pilot training, and the field serves as the unofficial base of the PC-7 Team aerobatic display formation, alongside Pilatus PC-6 Turbo-Porter, PC-9, Eurocopter EC635, Eurocopter AS532 Cougar and AS332 Super Puma helicopters, and the ADS-95 Ranger unmanned aircraft.