Gostyń-Gola Air Base

Military restructuring and obsolescence following the end of the Cold War. As a reserve/dispersal airfield, its strategic importance diminished significantly with the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. The Polish Armed Forces underwent major reorganization, leading to the decommissioning of numerous secondary military installations that were no longer operationally required or economically viable to maintain. The property was eventually transferred from the military to the Agricultural Property Agency (Agencja Nieruchomości Rolnych) and subsequently sold.

The site is fully decommissioned and is no longer an active airfield. The land has been privatized. The former concrete runway remains largely intact but is used for non-aviation purposes. A significant portion of the runway is utilized by a local agricultural enterprise for temporary storage of produce, such as large piles of sugar beets. The long, straight stretch of concrete also makes it a popular, though often unsanctioned, location for car enthusiasts, drag racing, and driver training events. In recent years, a wind farm has been constructed in the immediate vicinity, with several large wind turbines erected very close to the former runway, effectively precluding any future use for aviation.

Gostyń-Gola was a reserve military airfield (in Polish: Lotnisko Zapasowe) built for the Polish Air Force during the Warsaw Pact era, likely in the 1950s or 1960s. Its primary purpose was to act as a dispersal base in the event of a war, allowing combat aircraft to be moved from their main, more vulnerable bases. It was primarily associated with the 62nd Fighter Aviation Regiment (62 Pułk Lotnictwa Myśliwskiego) stationed at the Poznań-Krzesiny Air Base. In a conflict scenario, aircraft, most notably MiG-21 fighters from Krzesiny, would have been deployed to Gola. The infrastructure was characteristically austere for a reserve field, consisting mainly of a long concrete runway (approximately 2300m x 30m), taxiways, and dispersal areas, without extensive permanent facilities like hangars or large barracks.

There are no known official plans or realistic prospects for reopening the Gostyń-Gola site as an airport. The sale of the land to private entities, its current use for agriculture, and particularly the construction of the adjacent wind farm, create significant physical and legal obstacles to any potential reactivation for aviation purposes. The unofficial ICAO code PL-0012 is used by aviation enthusiasts and in flight simulator databases to mark its location, but it holds no official status.