Arad International Airport is located west of Arad, in western Romania, in the historical region of Crișana. The airport is located only north of Timişoara Airport. Arad International Airport also has a cargo terminal, the largest and most modern in western Romania. It is located 250 km from Budapest and 300 km from Belgrade. It is located near the border with Hungary, only 30 km from the closest point for crossing the border - Turnu and 20 km away from the closest railway point for crossing the border - Curtici. The airport also serves as the SMURD regional air ambulance base for the five western counties that form the region (Arad, Bihor, Timis, Hunedoara and Caras-Severin). SMURD Arad operates 1 Eurocopter EC135 converted for the air ambulance role. Arad Airport is directly connected to the A1 motorway (part of the Pan-European Corridor IV), one of the most important and heavily used motorways in Romania. History On the land of the Gai suburb there already was an infrastructure with a runway, hangar and a terminal, from the military campaign from 1917. Here, on 14 July 1912, a big meeting took place when Aurel Vlaicu, a pioneer in Romanian aviation, returned from Aspen Vienna and he was seen by his fellow citizens as a national hero. As a result of some negotiations that took place in order to build a new airport, on 30 May 1935 the civil municipal aviation give the land from the Ceala suburb where the constructions will start for building the infrastructure. The construction work ended in 1936 and the official inauguration of the new airport took place on 14 November 1937. From that moment all the air traffic was conducted on this location and the landings and taking off happened on a grass runway. In 1953 a concrete runway, 2000 meters long, was built, as the increased traffic demanded it. The A and D taxiways were built at the same time as the runway. The lighting system was rebuilt in 1954 using Elba lamps. The current runway is east–west, concrete, with dimensions of 2000 × 45 m, and is endowed with a state-of-the-art IDMAN lighting system consisting of marginal and axial light, threshold lights, approach lightings on both directions of operation and a Category II instrument landing system. Future Development A runway extension to 2500 m (8202 ft) has been proposed for the past couple of years,