Bucharest Henri Coandă International Airport
Bucharest Henri Coandă International Airport is Romania's busiest international airport, located in Otopeni, north of Bucharest's city centre. It is currently one of the two airports serving the capital of Romania, the other being the smaller Aurel Vlaicu Airport. The airport covers 605 hectares of land and contains two parallel runways, both 3,500 meters long.
The airport is named after Romanian flight pioneer Henri Coandă, builder of Coandă-1910 aircraft and discoverer of the Coandă effect of fluidics. Prior to May 2004, the official name was Bucharest Otopeni International Airport. Henri Coandă International Airport serves as headquarters for TAROM, the country's national airline. It also serves as a base of operations for low-cost airlines FlyOne, HiSky, Ryanair and Wizz Air. It is managed by The National Company Bucharest Airports S.A.. The military section of the airport is used as the 90th Airlift Base of the Romanian Air Force.
History
Early years
Originally, the airport in Otopeni was intended to be used as a Romanian civil aviation and military training center. During World War II, it was used as an airbase by the Luftwaffe. It was further developed in 1943, becoming one of the principal Luftwaffe bases around Bucharest. By 1944, it featured a beam approach system and two concrete runways, one of aligned North-South and one of aligned East-West. After 23 August 1944, the airport was used to launch air raids on Bucharest in support of the German efforts to overthrow the new government. It was bombed by the USAAF on 26 August and taken over by the Romanian military in the aftermath.Until 1965, it was a major airfield for the Romanian Air Force, with Băneasa Airport serving as Bucharest's commercial airport. In 1965, with the growth of air traffic, the Otopeni airbase was converted to a commercial airport. The runway was modernized and extended to from the previous, making it one of the longest in Europe at that time.
In August 1969, when United States President Richard Nixon visited Romania, a VIP lounge was inaugurated. A new passenger terminal, with a capacity of 1,200,000 passengers per year, was opened on 13 April 1970, for domestic and international flights. An improvement program added a second runway in 1986, expanding capacity to 35 aircraft movements per hour.
In 1992, Otopeni Airport became a regular member of Airports Council International.
Expansion since the 1990s
The first stage of the plan, taking place between 1994 and 1998, involved the construction of a new departures terminal and of a new airside concourse with five jetways and nine gates as well as the extension of airport ramps and of their associated taxiways.The second phase of the plan led to the construction of a terminal dedicated to domestic flights and of a multi-story car park, the complete overhaul of the control tower as well as the transformation of the old terminal building into a dedicated arrivals hall. During the same phase, two high-speed taxiways were constructed. Phase II was completed in 2007.
TAROM ended its unprofitable service to New York City in November 2003. In June 2007, Delta Air Lines began flying the same route with Boeing 767s. The company made the link seasonal in 2008. Delta terminated it in September 2009 due to the recession and difficulty competing with other airlines. HiSky has commenced service to New York in June 2024, reconnecting Bucharest to the United States.
The third stage of the plan, which started in 2009, involved the extension of the airside concourse with 15 new gates, as well as the expansion of the Departure Hall. The airside concourse extension, designed by Studio Capelli Architettura & Associati, and measuring, was inaugurated on 29 March 2011. It was followed, in November 2012, by the extension of the Departure Hall to a total area of.
In March 2012, all air traffic except for business air traffic was transferred from Aurel Vlaicu International Airport to Henri Coandă International Airport. Air Canada Rouge introduced seasonal routes to Toronto and Montreal in June 2018. The carrier operated the flights with Boeing 767s.
Future development
Beyond Phase III, a new terminal building at the eastern end of the current location is envisaged. The new building is expected to include a large commercial space. Henri Coandă 2 will be of a modular design, consisting of four separate buildings, each capable of handling 5 million passengers annually. Each module will be built as traffic demands dictate. By 2030, Terminal 2 alone should be able to handle the expected volume of 20 million passengers per year. The terminal will be directly connected to the A3 motorway and to the railway system. However, the plans might get delayed due to funding problems.On 18 January 2021, it has been announced that the airport purchased all the land it needs in order to begin the expansion. However, on 15 May 2023, the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure declared that a new terminal will not be built in the near future, because it is not necessary, a declaration which sparked criticism.
Terminals
The airport's facilities consist of a single terminal with three main facilities : the Departures Hall/Terminal, the Arrivals Hall/Terminal, and the Finger Terminal. A walkway with shops connects the departures and arrivals buildings. The airside concourse is organized in two passengers flows. The entire terminal has 104 check-in desks, 38 gates, and a total floor area of.Airlines and destinations
Passenger
The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Bucharest Henri Coandă Airport:Statistics
Passengers
In 2018, 13,824,830 passengers passed through the airport, an increase of 7.95% compared to 2017. In 2018, the airport handled 13.8 million passengers and 39,534 tons of cargo.Busiest routes
| Rank | City |
| 1 |  0Ground transportationRailAn airport rail link service to the main railway station, Gara de Nord, runs from the Henri Coandă Airport railway station, located near the parking lot of the Arrivals hall. Trains operated by CFR and Transferoviar Călători run 24 hours a day, every 40 minutes, and the journey takes about 20–25 minutes.Metro Line M6, currently under construction, will connect the airport to Gara de Nord and integrate it into the Bucharest Metro network. BusHenri Coandă Airport is served by Bucharest's public transport operator STB. Express bus line 100 connects the airport with the city centre and operates 24 hours a day; buses run roughly every 15 minutes during the day and every 30 minutes at night. Journey times typically range from about 35 to 50 minutes, depending on traffic, and can be significantly longer during peak periods, occasionally approaching 75 minutes.Express bus line 442 also serves the airport, linking Piața Presei Liberei in northern Bucharest with Therme Bucharest via Henri Coandă Airport. CarThe airport is north of central Bucharest, to which it is connected by the DN1 national road. DN1 also connects to the nearby A0 ring motorway and Bucharest Băneasa Aurel Vlaicu International Airport, located within the city.Plans for the development of the airport include a new access road linking the proposed Terminal 2 to the A0 motorway ring, designed so that it can later be extended to the A3 motorway, providing an additional road connection to the city and the surrounding region. Taxi and ride-shareTaxis serving Henri Coandă Airport can be ordered using touch-screen terminals in the arrivals hall, which connect passengers with licensed taxi companies. The system was introduced in 2013 as part of a reorganisation of taxi services at the airport, replacing an earlier phone-based ordering scheme and intended to simplify bookings and reduce problems with intermediaries and unauthorised drivers soliciting passengers and overcharging.Ride-sharing services such as Uber and Bolt also operate at the airport, using authorised pick-up areas in a dedicated ride-sharing zone on the upper level of the multi-storey car park in front of the international arrivals terminal. Incidents and accidents
|