Ajaccio-Campo Dell'Oro Airport

Ajaccio – Napoleon Bonaparte Airport formerly Campo dell’Oro Airport (IATA: AJA, ICAO: LFKJ) is the main airport serving Ajaccio on the French island of Corsica. It is located in Ajaccio, a commune of the departement of Corse-du-Sud, 5 km (3.1 mi) east of the harbor.

Napoleon Bonaparte Airport Airport is the main base of regional airline Air Corsica (CCM Airlines), which operates services to continental France. Paris-Orly or Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Marseille, Nice, Lyon, Toulon, Toulouse, Clermont-Ferrand, Bordeaux, Nantes, Bruxelles Sud-Charleroi, London-Stansted. Air Corsica is the air link between Corsica et les regions franĂƒÂ§aises (Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur, Aquitaine, Auvergne, Rhone-Alpes, Jura, Loire-Atlantique, Ile-de-France) mais aussi la Belgique et le Royaume-Uni.

In 1940 a Vichy Air Corp unit was kept inactive at Campo dell’Oro. The liberation of Corsica began with the landing by sea in 1943 of I Corps at Ajaccio in Operation Vesuve. A few months later Fighter Group GC2/7 of the Free French Air Force, a French unit of the Royal Air Force, were operational on the grass field at Campo dell’Oro with Spitfires. Heavy aircraft were unable to land and came to mishap in the soft surface.

In 1944 the United States Army Air Forces took over the airport and put down a hard surface of perforated metallic mats from which a squadron of P-51’s flew. They defended B-24’s flying from new airfields constructed on the east coast of Corsica. Campo dell’Oro was a challenge for the larger aircraft because of its relatively short runways and proximity to the mountains. Toward the end of the war the runways were paved, the foundation of the modern airport. The Americans also made a concerted effort to eradicate malaria by infilling wetlands and spraying pesticides in coastal regions.