City of Aviation
If you ask the proud people of Turopolje what makes their region special, they will surely answer that it is a rich historical heritage, but they will also brag that their Velika Gorica is the aviation center of Croatia.
The vast Turopolje lowland, which in the oldest historical records is also called Zagrebacko polje, is an ideal area for the location of the most demanding traffic intersection – the airport. In this case, the airports of the capital of Croatia. The connection between Velika Gorica and aviation begins decades before 1962, when today’s Franjo Tudman International Airport and the Velika Gorica Aviation Technical Center began operating on the outskirts of the city.
In the first part of the 20th century, Velika Gorica was still only a town with a few thousand inhabitants on the road, but also on the railway, between Zagreb and Sisak. Agriculture and the wood industry are the main activities of the area rich in oak forests, but the transport routes also developed trade and craftsmanship in this old fair town. The people of Velika Gorica will see the accelerated development of aviation in the world in the middle of the century when, as the oldest citizens of Gorica testify, there are several smaller grass airfields in the city. They will mention “Betonirka”, today’s A.K. Miosic street in the very center of the city, or the airport near the Kurilovec radar facility. One of these airfields, the one near the Pleso settlement, will take over the primacy when it receives the first facilities of the future airport for World War II – buildings and hangars, and a concrete runway is built instead of grass. All this led to the already mentioned 1962, when the Zagreb Airport with 13 employees began operating at the Pleso airport. In the same year, on the other side of the city, VTRZ Zmaj began its work, which was engaged in the maintenance of military aircraft and at one point had over a thousand employees. Between them is the air base of the Croatian Air Force, today’s 91st wing and the headquarters of the Croatian Air Force itself. These three locations with their runways and platforms are connected by taxiways for airplanes and form a kind of “horseshoe” that hugs Velika Gorica.
The people of Gorica will say that in any direction you look – around and above you – you will see airplanes. Therefore, the traffic sign “Watch out for the plane” on the Gorica road towards Domovinski most, as well as the planes crossing the road, are not a surprising phenomenon. The coexistence of the citizens of Velika Gorica and air traffic has always tried to get the best out of neighborly relations, so Velika Gorica emphasized that as part of its identity, as the aviation headquarters of Croatia, it is called the City of Aviation!
Velika Gorica with the main croatian airport on its territory, civil and military aviation that operates in the area of the city, tradition in aviation, a significant share of the working population in air transport activities, the effects of air transport on the city’s economy, the educational system of the workforce for air transport, accompanying commercial activities that develop alongside aviation activities, above all logistics, and the overall highest concentration of aviation activities in the territory of one city, it wants to stand out as the City of Aviation – it was said in 2016 at the signing of the Charter of Friendship between the City of Velika Gorica and aviation entities that they operate from Velika Gorica, and the result of this friendship is the joint organization of the first major air shows in this city.
The signatories of this Charter are the Croatian Air Force, Zagreb International Airport, Croatian Air Navigation Control, Velika Gorica Aviation Technical Center, Croatia Airlines, Trade Air, Rudolf Peresin Aviation Technical School, Velika Gorica University of applied sciences, Aeroclub Velika Gorica and Tourist board of Velika Gorica.
