Palanga International Airport (Palanga)

 international airport  Add category

www.palanga-airport.lt/en/
IATA: PLQ, ICAO: EYPA
Palanga International Airport (IATA: PLQ, ICAO: EYPA) is an international airport located in the western part of Lithuania near the Baltic Sea. The airport services mid-range routes operated by aircraft like Boeing 737, Saab 2000, Saab 340, CRJ-200, Jetstream-32, ATR 42, Yak-42 and similar. Since 1993, the number of passengers passing through the airport has been increasing annually. After Lithuania became a member of the EU the amount of passengers handled in 2004, increased more than 60% in comparison with 2003.
Nowadays Palanga airport is the third largest airport in Lithuania after Vilnius International Airport and Kaunas International Airport in terms of passenger traffic. Over two hundred people are employed by the airport facilities.

Palanga Airport started operations in 1937 at a site 7 kilometers East of the current terminal, near the Palanga-Darbenai road. The Lithuanian Air Force pilots were trained there. In 1939, the first scheduled airline service in Lithuania began operating on Kaunas - Palanga route.

From 1940-1941, and again 1945-1963, the airport was used by the Air Force of the Soviet Union. It was during the post-war period when the new air strip and facilities at the current site first appeared. In 1963, the airport was converted into a civilian airport.

In 1991, Palanga Airport was re-registered as a national airport owned and run by the state. In 1997, the airport joined the major international aviation organization ACI (Airports Council International).

Between 1994 and 1997, the passenger terminal was renovated. Passenger services and luggage handling was fully modernized to comply with the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Between 1994-1995, the flight control center was refurbished, in 1996-1997 the runway surface was renovated and in 1998, the airport apron and taxiways were renovated.

In 2021 the new revamp was performed.
The signal light system has been redesigned to be more efficient and environmentally friendly, replacing the old metal halide lamps with energy-saving LED lights. The work involved the installation of around 100 kilometers of cabling and more than 600 new lights. These solutions should reduce electricity consumption by around 20% for path lighting alone after the reconstruction.
— CO₂ emissions problem has been addressed during the reconstruction by installing specialized aircraft Power Generation Units (GPUs) on the apron itself, underground in certain aircraft parking areas. Once these are in place, Palanga Airport will in most cases no longer need diesel power units.