Pardubice’s claim to aviation fame starts with Jan Kašpar, born in the town on 20 May 1883. A graduate of the Czech Technical University in Prague, he studied aero-engines in Germany and worked for Laurin & Klement before buying a Blériot XI with his cousin Evžen Čihák. On 16 April 1910 he made his first successful flight in it at Pardubice, covering about 2 km at a height of 20–25 m, and is remembered as the first pilot of Czech nationality.

The claim needs a footnote. The German aviator Otto Hieronimus flew in Bohemia about two weeks earlier, and a French pilot, Gaubert, had flown over Prague in January 1910. What is not in dispute is Kašpar’s long-distance flight: on 13 May 1911 he flew his own JK aircraft, built on the Blériot pattern, from Pardubice to Velká Chuchle in Prague, about 121 km in 92 minutes, the longest flight in the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time.

The National Technical Museum in Prague, which holds that aircraft, calls Kašpar the most important figure of early Czech aviation and the 13 May 1911 flight the first long-distance flight in Czech aviation history. Kašpar died in Pardubice on 2 March 1927. According to English Wikipedia, used here only as a finding aid, the first flying club in the Czech lands was founded in Pardubice on 26 April 1911, and in the Second World War the airfield trained Luftwaffe pilots before being bombed at the end of the war.

For most of the Cold War Pardubice was a purely military fighter airfield, from 1950 to 1995 according to Wikipedia. Its main tenant was the 4th Fighter Regiment (4. stíhací letecký pluk) of the 10th Air Army, flying the MiG-21. The specialist site Czech Air Force records that 24 MiG-21MA fighters were delivered to the regiment in 1969–70, and that in August 1971 it became the first fighter unit of the Czechoslovak air force to receive the MiG-21MF.

It shared the airfield with the 47th Reconnaissance Regiment, which flew MiG-21 reconnaissance versions at Pardubice and later at Hradec Králové until 1993. The airfield was laid out with three dispersal areas: the first for the 4th Regiment, a second later used by the 30th Regiment, and a third near Starý Máteřov for the 47th Reconnaissance Regiment, which has been unused since the early 1990s.

The regiment’s record was not a proud one. Of the 107 MiG-21s the Czechoslovak and Czech air forces lost between 1962 and 2005, in accidents that killed about 42 pilots, the 4th Regiment accounted for 17: five in fatal accidents and twelve in accidents without loss of life. Czech Air Force writes that this unflattering first place was said to be one of the reasons the regiment was disbanded in 1989. Its dispersal and maintenance hangar were later rebuilt for the Gripens.

On 24 June 1985 the 30th Regiment moved to Pardubice from Hradec Králové, where it had been based since 1 November 1959; the 47th Reconnaissance Regiment went the other way. The unit is described as a fighter-bomber regiment at the time of the move and as an attack regiment later. By 1990 it was the 30th Attack Air Regiment of the 10th Air Army, flying the Su-25K, and Czech Air Force records L-39ZA and Su-25K aircraft on its part of the airfield.

After the Cold War, Pardubice became a training airfield. From 1995 the 34th Training Air Base kept its L-29 Delfín and L-39 Albatros trainers here; in 1994 aircraft from the disbanded 1st Training Regiment at Přerov were moved to it. The base was renamed the 34th Special Aviation Base in 2000, and was dissolved on 30 November 2003 in the army reform.

The Ministry of Defence’s Pardubice Airfield Administration (Správa letiště Pardubice) says the modern history of military flying at Pardubice dates from 1 December 2003, when it took over the airfield. The 14th Logistic Support Regiment began moving in on 1 April 2004 and was fully in place with its subordinate 141st Supply Battalion on 1 July 2004. The same day, 1 April 2004, the Centre of Aviation Training of LOM PRAHA was founded.

The civil company East Bohemian Airport a.s. was founded in 1993. The airport opened to civil traffic on 18 May 1995 and was approved for instrument flights from 1 November 1996. From 2000 it was used regularly for holiday flights; in 2002 the City of Pardubice became its sole owner. Today the city holds 66 per cent and the Pardubice Region 34 per cent, and the airport describes itself as a military airport with the status of a public international airport.

For a time Pardubice leaned heavily on Russian traffic. A route to Moscow began in November 2006 and a scheduled route from St Petersburg opened on 25 May 2012; the airport reports more than 184,000 passengers in 2013. Construction of the Jan Kašpar Terminal, 160 by 46 metres, started in the second quarter of 2016; the airport’s history page dates the opening to 2017, while its company page says the first passengers were handled on 30 January 2018.

Traffic fell to 33,901 passengers in the 2020 pandemic year and recovered with Ryanair routes to Spain, reaching 200,205 in 2024, according to figures collected by Wikipedia from the airport’s reports. The runway, 2,500 by 75 metres of concrete according to the Czech AIP, is shared with the air force, and the airport says it works in close cooperation with the Army of the Czech Republic.

The Centre of Aviation Training (Centrum leteckého výcviku, CLV) is part of the state enterprise LOM PRAHA and trains Czech Air Force pilots under contract. At its 20th anniversary on 4 April 2024 the Ministry of Defence reported nearly 400 Czech military pilots and more than 200 from nine other nations trained, 94,000 hours flown, and simulators for the L-39, L-159, Gripen and F-16 in a tactical simulation centre opened in 2011.

Foreign training is a real business. Four Nigerian pilots, three men and one woman, completed a 150-hour L-39C course between June 2020 and 13 August 2021, after a first Nigerian group in 2018. On 2 December 2021 the CLV was chosen, with the International Flight Training School at Decimomannu in Sardinia, as one of the first two campuses of NATO Flight Training Europe, a ten-nation initiative whose defence ministers signed a memorandum in June 2021.

The fleet is being renewed almost completely. A contract of 14 November 2022 bought four L-39NG Skyfox jets, with an option for four more that has since been taken up; six were in service by January 2026, and the Skyfoxes passed 1,000 flying hours on 20 July 2026. Eight Zlín Z-143LSi and Z-242L piston trainers were ordered in December 2024 for 86.8 million koruna, and an L-410NG was ordered on 12 June 2026 for 243.9 million koruna to replace the last L-410UVP-T in 2027.

The old aircraft have gone. The CLV’s L-39C Albatros fleet, eight aircraft from April 2004, flew more than 23,600 hours in nearly 33,400 sorties and made its last flight on 2 September 2026; one aircraft, 0441, went to the Kbely aviation museum. The L-410 “Máňa” retired to the Kunovice museum after 3,517 hours, and in January 2026 the Mi-17 and Enstrom helicopters moved permanently to Přerov-Bochoř because Pardubice had run out of room.

Pardubice was chosen as the reserve airfield for Čáslav’s runway rebuild well in advance. In October 2023 the ministry signed a 416 million koruna contract, including VAT, with Metrostav DIZ and Marhold to adapt it within about two years: a large Vítkovice-type hangar was rebuilt, the hardened aircraft shelters received new doors, and accommodation and dining were expanded. The plan at the time was to move 14 Gripens here for two years.

The move began on Tuesday 10 March 2026, when two pairs and a single Gripen flew in from Čáslav; the L-159s went to Náměšť nad Oslavou. From 1 April 2026 the 211th Tactical Squadron flies from Pardubice, using the modernised dispersal and repair hangar of the old 4th Fighter Regiment. The Čáslav works, led by HOCHTIEF, cost 5.33 billion koruna without VAT and run until autumn 2028.

The army announced flying at Pardubice on working days only, where its tasks allow, between 09:00 and 23:00, plus one or two training flights a day under the NATO alert system, and acknowledged that noise would rise temporarily. The alert is real: on 17 and 24 September 2026 pairs of JAS-39C Gripens scrambled from Pardubice to fly combat air patrols along Poland’s south-eastern border during Russian drone attacks on Ukraine.

The base also had a civilian cost. The Aviatická pouť air show, held at Pardubice since 1991 when Kašpar’s 1911 flight was re-flown in a replica after 80 years, was told that it could not use the airfield for at least two years; its 2026 edition moved to Hradec Králové. The show had drawn nearly 35,000 visitors in 2019 and more than 20,000 in 2023, by the organisers’ count, so the loss was felt in the town. The organisers already list Hradec Králové as the venue for 2027.