History

The history of an international aviation at the Ostrava-Mošnov airport dates back to the earliest 1900s. The Žurovec brothers, residenting of the then settlement of Harty, were local air pioneers experimenting between 1909 and 1914.

They were stopped by the World War I. Once it was over, both brothers, Josef and Vilém, went on with civic aviation, using an aircraft purchased from war surpluses. After some time, however, they lacked cash and had to stop. The current site of the Ostrava airport was first used for air traffic by the German Luftwaffe, who built an airfield here after Czechoslovakia was occupied in 1939, to the stage of an attack on Poland. In May 1945, the airfield went over to the Czechoslovak mixed air division. A period of inactivity followed, with the land left to its original purposes, that is, farming.

The modern history started in 1956 when construction started on the current site. Right from the start, however, the airport was not supposed for civilian use only; on the contrary, the airport was primarily meant to serve the military needs. Officially, the civilian air traffic started on 16 October 1959, with a TU-104A landing here, and this was where all the air traffic was shifted from the previous airport in Ostrava-Hrabůvka, no longer convenient and located directly inside the city. The lines serviced by ČSA consisted mainly of domestic destinations, with occasional foreign flights. Thus, the Mošnov airport hosted all types of both propeller and jet aircraft operated by ČSA. In the 1960s and 1970s, air taxi services were commonly used. A major change came in 1989. Shortly afterwards, the military section of the airport was closed, and now it was ČSL who was in charge of the airport management. Another major change came on 1 July 2004, when the Ostrava airport was transferred from the state-run airport administration under the control of regional authorities. The airport has been operated by a new company, Letiště Ostrava, a.s., since.

The Ostrava airport has been developing dynamically. These days, you may come across airplanes of many carriers from all over the world flying in on charter flights, just as much as airplanes owned by domestic air lines. The international airport of Ostrava has turned into a major partner the entire Moravian-Silesian region.