Kornos Highway Strip

34°55'08"N 033°24'25"E

Runway: 01/19 - 2700meters/0000feet - asphalt
Runway: 02/20 - 1100meters/0000feet - asphalt

Kornos Highway Strip is an emergency airfield in Cyprus.
The airfield was built after the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey in 1974, when the country was effectively left without a major airfield. To prevent such an event from ever happening again, the Cyprus government not only built two new international airfields (and a national airfield), but also some runways intended for emergency use (i.e. war). The airfield is located on the A-1 highway, 26 kilometers south of Nicosia.

Kornos Highway strip differs significantly from the other two highway strips in Cyprus.
First of all, Kornos is built on a nearly 4 kilometer stretch of highway, with a slight bend in the middle. This effectively gives Kornos two runways; one 2,7 kilometers long, the other one just over a kilometer.
The other difference lies in the aircraft parkings. Kornos has only two, but those are substantially larger than the small fighter sized parkings you find at the other two strips. Both are found on the west side of the runway, the northern one about halfway down the longest runway, the southern one in the bend between the two runways. The size of the parkings suggests that the airstrip is primarily intended for use by C-130 sized transport aircraft.
I have not found any references to the airfield ever having been used.


kornos highway strips 2007

The photos below were shot in October 2014 by Richard Flagg of UKAirfields, who was kind enough to share his photos with this site. 


The northern transition from normal highway to emergency runway. The difference is easily recognisable.






Photo of the southern runway from the southern parking. To clarify the traffic: Cyprus shares much of its history with the English Empire, hence the cars drive on the opposite side of the road, compared to the rest of Europe.