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aviation is forbidden. The previously noted CZLS acts in a supervisory role over the activities of the Polish Air Ambulance Service. This small ambulance service has a staff of about 200 people, including pilots, doctors, medical assistants, and aircraft mechanics. The service transports patients, supplies, and medical personnel in emergency situations.
Agricultural aviation plays a large role in Poland and is a source of foreign currency. LZUG operates 100 light aircraft for agricultural spraying and has sprayed crops and forests in the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, Finland, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia. Of 60 Polish aircraft stationed in Africa, 42 PZL-101 "Gawron" and 18 COLT (AN-2) are prepared to fly agroaviation missions. Negotiations have been initiated to provide similar services to Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. It is expected that Polish agricultural aviation will continue to expand.
Principal international conventions and multilateral agreements relating to the conduct of international air services to which Poland is a party are the 1944 Convention of International Civil Aviation and the International Air Services Transit Agreement, which led to Poland's becoming a member of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). In November 1958 LOT was one of the first Eastern European Communist carriers to become a member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Bilateral air agreements with 34 other countries sanction the exchange of air services between Poland and those countries. These include 26 agreements with West European, North American, Middle Eastern, and African states and agreements with all the Eastern European Communist states. In addition LOT is party to the multilateral Six-Pool Agreement with the air carriers of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, East Germany, and Romania. At present 17 foreign carriers serve Poland, including Aeroflot (USSR) and all the European Communist international carriers. Non-Communist carriers serving Warsaw are Air France, Pan American, Alitalia, SEA-British European Airways, SABENA-Belgian Airlines, Lufthansa, KLM-Royal Dutch Airlines, SAS-Scandinavian Airlines System, Swissair, and Austrian Airlines.
J. Airfields[1] (S)
Poland has a total of 146 known airfields, 85 of which have runways 6,000 feet or more in length. There are no active seaplane stations. Of the larger airfields, 65 have permanent runways; about half of these are in the northwest quadrant of the country, and the remainder are about equally divided along the southwestern and southern frontier and around the Warsaw area. The air facilities system is more than adequate to meet existing military and civil air requirements. Nine of the larger airfields with permanent runways, which are used by regularly scheduled LOT flights, are Warsaw/Okecie, the international airport of entry; Poznan/Lawica, the alternate international airport; Rzeszow/Jasionka; and Zendek, Zegrze Pomorskie, Balice, Goleniow, Bydgoszcz, and Wroclaw/Strachowice. Of these, all but Poznan/Lawica and Rzeszow/Jasionka support home-based Polish Air Force and civil aircraft. Gdansk (54°24'N., 18°36'E.), also serving civil airline flights, is to be replaced by a new airfield under construction (Gdansk Rebiechowo, 54°23'N., 18°28'E.) about 4 miles west of the city.
In the early 1960's the runways at most operational airfields were extended to accommodate FISHBED jet fighters. In the mid- to late 1960's runways were added at Wilcze Laski (54°36'N., 16°43'E.), Broczyno (54°31'N., 16°17'E.), Kakolewo (52°14'N., 16°15'E.) - all formerly sod-surfaced deployment fields - and at Olesnica (51°13'N., 17°26'E.), an Officers Technical Training School. In the early 1970's runways were added at Ploty (53°45'N., 15°17'E.), Bednary (52°32'N., 17°13'E.) and Labien (54°40'N., 17°45'E.), all formerly sod-surfaced deployment fields, and runways were extended at Balice, Mirslawiec, and Sochaczew/Bielice. The development of Warsaw/Okecie, continued through the 1960's and the early 1970's, included extensions to both runways, additional taxiways and aprons, and a modern terminal building. Facilities at Rzeszow/Jasionka are being improved, with the reported intent of making it an alternate international airport. In the late 1960's and early 1970's, airfield defenses were added at most active military fields. This included SA-3 (SAM sites) and hardened hangarettes at all the Soviet-occupied fighter bases and antiaircraft artillery and aircraft revetments at Polish Air Force airfields. At some of the latter, hardened hangarettes were being added in 1971-72, and more are expected to be built.
Of the 65 larger airfields with permanent runways, 28 have regularly assigned tactical aircraft - 20 by the Polish Air Force (including Modlin, which has an advanced training mission) one (Cewice) by the Polish Naval Air Arm; and seven (Kolobrzeg on the Baltic Coast, Stargard, Konigsberg (Chojna), Zagan, Szprotawa, and Osla along the western frontier, and
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- ↑ Detailed information on airfields in Poland is contained in Volume 14, Airfields and Seaplane Stations of the World (ASSOTW), published by the Defense Intelligence Agency.
