Spilve Airport

Spilve Airport
IATA: None – ICAO: EVRS Spilve Location of airport in Latvia
Summary
Airport type		Civil
Location		Riga
Elevation AMSL		5 ft / 1.6 m
Coordinates		56°59′28″N 024°4′30″E
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	ft	m
14/32	5,413	1,650	Asphalt

Spilve Airport (Latvian: Spilves lidosta, also given as Rīgas Centrālā Lidosta – Riga Central Airport) is a former civilian and military airport in Latvia located 5 km north of the Riga city centre, from which aircraft took off as early as the First World War. It became the first international airport of Riga in the 1930s and fell into disuse in 1980s after the new Riga International Airport was built.

History

Spilve Airport was first used as early as World War I. From 1937, regular commercial flights linked Spilve with Helsinki via Tallinn, Warsaw via Vilnius, Berlin and Moscow via Kaunas. After World War II and the Soviet occupation, it was rebuilt as the hub for Aeroflot. A new ring taxiway was added and tarmac changed. The terminal building still remains as a notable example of Stalin's neoclassical architecture. The airfield was closed for regular flights in the late 1980s.

A large technical school existed here until the 1990s with one of each major Soviet aircraft type, including Ilyushin Il-18, Ilyushin Il-62 and Tupolev Tu-134, most broken up around 1996 or 1997.

Current use

The airfield at Spilve is now published in the Latvian pilot's guide "VFR Guide Latvia". A new (3rd) hangar has now been built housing some 4 or 5 aircraft (ultralights and aerobatic aircraft) complementing the 2 existing hangar buildings. The larger hangar seen on satellite imagery being used to house up to 12 aircraft ranging from ultralight to Cessna 210, while a 2nd hangar to the North East is used for ultralights and flex-wing microlights.

Riga Spilve is being increasingly used as a base for training private pilots.

External links

• Spilve Airfield Webpage
• An amateur's page about Spilve airfield
• (Latvian) A bit of history and pictures about Spilve